There should be more life in the forest cemetery - new and maintenance-free burial forms

Created: 05/25/2022, 13:05

By: Peter Schiebel

The Cemetery Competence Center can imagine a memorial forest garden similar to this facility in the northern, previously unused part of the Starnberg Forest Cemetery.

Urns can be buried in different places, the design is park-like, and grave maintenance by relatives is no longer necessary.

© FKZ

For an hour, the main and finance committee discussed how more life should come to the Starnberg forest cemetery - with new and maintenance-free burial forms.

Starnberg – With this statement, CSU City Councilor Rudolf Zirngibl had the laughs on his side.

"It would be nice if you could revive a cemetery," he said on Monday evening at the meeting of the city council's main and finance committee.

And yet he got to the heart of the matter.

Because for an hour, the committee did indeed discuss how more life should come to the Starnberg forest cemetery - with new and maintenance-free burial forms, i.e. with graves that the descendants no longer have to take care of.

the initial situation

Alternative forms of burial, such as urn burials in forests and on trees, are becoming increasingly popular.

Last year, ten trees were planted specifically for this purpose in the forest cemetery with its around 1,500 graves.

Only 24 graves were free there at the end of February.

For this reason, ten more trees have already been planted this spring.

Funeral director Zirngibl reported on Monday that he brings three to four urns a week to the burial in the Waldruh in Dietramszell, the closest burial forest to Starnberg.

The demand for classic family graves, on the other hand, is falling.

More than a year ago, the committee had therefore spoken out in favor of developing a future concept for alternative forms of burial.

It is about previously free areas located in the northern part of the forest cemetery.

The stock of graves should not be changed, conventional forms of burial should still be possible.

The future concept

Michael Hartl, Managing Director of the Friedhof-Kompetenz-Zentrum (FKZ) from Rosenheim, presented this concept at the meeting on Monday.

Starnberg is in the "very fortunate situation" of having a "very nice cemetery" with the forest cemetery, he said.

But: "Even in rural areas, more than 70 percent are now cremation." Grave care means a lot of effort, especially for older people, and many families live scattered.

From this he concludes: "The cemetery must adapt to the citizens."

Hartl can imagine a "modular construction" for the forest cemetery: burials on family or community trees, burials along a watercourse or a body of water, burials on a mowed meadow area or a flower meadow.

Space is available for this.

The implementation of other ideas is also conceivable, for example with "mountain-like elements".

A rose garden is also very popular.

The aim is to design the cemetery in such a way that it "invites citizens to linger as an oasis of well-being".

The FKZ concept also includes mourning and a culture of remembrance.

It is conceivable, for example, to lay out slates on which the bereaved can write their thoughts or draw something.

"It's great when you can read something there week after week or admire small works of art," said Hartl.

An alternative is a mailbox in which the bereaved can throw their thoughts written down on paper.

"It's very welcome," he said.

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The costs/fees

Specific costs were not discussed on Monday.

Hartl offers to lease the expansion areas from the city and design them the way the city wants.

The company would pre-finance the costs and refinance them through cemetery fees.

"We're taking all the risks with it."

Hartl denied that the fees in the new part would automatically be higher than in the existing part of the forest cemetery.

"We do not want luxury funerals, but funeral services for everyone," he emphasized.

Of course, the fees could be higher at first glance, but there would be no costs for edging, gravestones, grave maintenance and the like, for example.

The discussion

Specialist Zirngibl was “totally enthusiastic”, as he said.

"I don't know of a single reservation." And he even went a step further on the issue of costs.

"We might even have the opportunity to lower burial fees," he said.

Namely, if these alternative burial offers would also appeal to people from other communities.

“We could be pioneers in the district.

I can only recommend it.” Katja Fohrmann (CSU) also spoke of a timely offer.

Eva Pfister (BMS) said: "There is a lot to be said for the redesign to be well thought out and to be tackled from a single source for the next few decades." for example in Bad Feilnbach or in Kolbermoor.