Like many other communities, the district of Wartenberg is experiencing a fundamental change in burial culture.
This became clear when the building, environment and transport committee visited the cemetery.
The trend is clearly towards urn graves.
Wartenberg – According to Mayor Christian Pröbst (CSU), there is hardly any demand for classic graves.
According to information from the administration, 77 of 586 family graves and 18 of 45 individual graves are still free on request.
Instead, the urn is trendy.
This also has an impact on the design of the cemetery.
The urn graves are slowly becoming scarce.
28 of 99 urn graves, four of 36 places in urn steles are still free.
The Wartenberg market has to act.
How, that was the topic of the site inspection, and the committee agreed that further urn steles should be erected in the design of the existing ones.
It will not just be a small addition to the previous facilities, "but an expansion in two stages, whereby the number of these steles could easily double.
But a lot will also happen with the earth graves for urns”.
The mayor informed the committee that one or the other grave might soon be abandoned - because the useful life has expired or after consultation with the bereaved.
This creates further possibilities in the area where the earthen graves for urns have already been laid out.
And what about the burial under a prominent tree?
The committee also discussed this during their tour of the cemetery.
Pröbst said there was a need for that too.
There are ten tree graves and they are all full.
The root system of this tree causes difficulties.
Also, the well for watering is nearby and should be shielded somehow.
Proposals are to be developed for this.
The clear trend towards urn burials presented by the mayor also has another advantage: classic earthen graves need more space.
No one spoke more of a cemetery expansion.
At 42 euros per year, the individual graves are cheaper than an urn wall grave at 134 euros, but the rest periods are different: for burials it is 15 years, for urns only five years.
And then the costs of grave care are also an issue for more and more families: they often have to be outsourced, for example to a garden center, for example if the relatives live further away.
The on-site visit was also part of the many preparations for the difficult 2023 budget. The funeral service is a compulsory task of the municipality.
Pröbst announced that funding for what the committee has now agreed will be discontinued.
