The nationwide active "Association for Memorial Culture" joins the debate about the establishment of a funeral forest in Weilheim.
“We can only identify risks, but no public interest,” writes the association - and demands that environmental issues be taken into account when it comes to “cremation”.
Weilheim
- On the website of the “Weilheimer Tagblatt”, active members of the Darmstadt-based “Verband für Gedenkkultur eV” read about the discussion about whether a so-called cemetery should be created in Weilheim's city forest.
The city council faction of the CSU and FDP had requested this, the main committee of the city council postponed the decision for the time being.
And according to the association - which is committed to “preserving the traditional cemetery culture” and “wants to sensitize our society to the value of worthy remembrance” - the city council would do well to bury this idea completely soon.
The municipality could run into problems
A funeral forest cannot be barrier-free, individual grave trees are difficult to reach for people with restricted mobility, and at most “a standardized plaque on the tree” reminds of the deceased, “who should find their final rest from far away in the Weilheim forest,” explains Ralph Auth on behalf of the association. Since there is already the possibility of being buried under trees in the municipal cemetery, he clearly advises Weilheim against providing such an “additional infrastructure”: “We can only identify risks, but no public interest, as long as there are trees on the Weilheimer Cemeteries are available and such an offer already exists with the cemetery in Dietramszell. "
In communities near burial forests, support payments for denominational cemeteries would increasingly be necessary, warns Auth: "Relocations from the cemeteries to the burial forest are to be expected, the greater the fee discrepancy, the greater the discrepancy in fees." three cemeteries is the main cemetery bearer in Weilheim, ”advises the association, therefore, to“ unequivocally reject ”the CSU / FDP application.
100 burials per year in the funeral forest?
The number given by the CSU that around 200 burials would be possible in ten years on one hectare in the funeral forest is corrected by the association: “Rather, there are up to 2000 burials every 20 years, i.e. 100 burials per year.
For comparison: Approx. 250 people die in Weilheim every year. ”Incidentally, the term“ Friedwald ”should not be used for Weilheim because“ Friedwald GmbH ”- which has not yet appeared on site - is protected as a word and figurative mark have.
If the city intends to commission "according to the Friedwald or Ruheforst pattern", "an operating GmbH or GbR would have to be founded", so Auth: These could "pull out if there is no return, but not without the municipality operating for the rest of the term to hand over.
The liability risk always remains with the municipality. "
Nature also provides mineralization without crematoria.
The "Association for Memorial Culture eV", which calls for "a return to climate-neutral burial" instead of cremations.
The "Association for Memorial Culture" calls for "the protection of cemeteries close to residential areas" and advocates near-natural burial, "in which cremation and thus fossil natural gas can be dispensed with".
In 2018 he initiated German UNESCO to recognize traditional cemetery culture as a cultural heritage - which is now the case.
According to the association, “the problem of cremation” should also be addressed “with regard to CO2 emissions”.
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