When the police in the Weilheim-Schongau district call the undertaker.
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Created: 12/29/2022, 4:00 p.m
By: Jennifer Battaglia
In the case of unnatural deaths, the police will notify an undertaker to take the deceased away.
The police have to find a new undertaker in the Schongau region © Symbolfoto IMAGO / Panthermedia
If people die an unnatural death, the police take care of the clarification of the circumstances of death.
Undertakers who have signed a contract with the police are contacted to transport the deceased.
Three funeral directors from the district report on their work.
District
– Werner Pausch has been an undertaker for 27 years.
The 51-year-old is the deputy head of "Bestattungen Penzberg", which belongs to the city of Penzberg.
If a person dies of an unnatural death in the area of responsibility of the Penzberg police station - i.e. in a car accident or a violent crime - the funeral home is informed.
It is contractually regulated between the police and "Bestattungen Penzberg" that only this company is responsible for the removal of the deceased in such cases.
"We have about 15 police operations per year," says Pausch.
This includes not only traffic deaths or murder victims, but also suicide deaths, missing persons found dead or deceased from apartment openings.
In the catchment area of the police station there is both a motorway and a railway line.
"Sometimes we are also called to the Walchensee."
You only work in a team
The sight of people dying unnaturally is often hard to bear, but Pausch still tries to treat the procedure as routine.
"I don't think about it much," he says.
"If you think too much, you break yourself." He is actually a trained butcher, but decided in the 1990s to take up his father's job, who was an undertaker in Munich for many decades.
Werner Pausch has been working in Penzberg since 2001.
At “Bestattungen Penzberg” we always work in a team.
After the police have been notified, the undertakers come to the scene of the accident or crime in pairs.
They have a lockable stretcher with them.
Before the deceased is placed in the stretcher, he is placed in a "body pack".
This is a large, white plastic bag with a zipper.
This is also used when the dead person has lost extremities, for example after a train accident, and these are scattered.
For the autopsy in the forensic medicine in Munich
The funeral home first drives the deceased to Penzberg, where they are deposited in the walk-in refrigeration at the cemetery.
Either the public prosecutor's office gives the go-ahead or the dead man has to be taken to the forensic medicine department in Munich.
The funeral home will also take care of the transfer.
"An autopsy usually only takes a few hours, rarely more than a day," says Pausch.
The subsequent burial of the deceased can, but does not have to, be carried out by the funeral home.
Carolin Engstler is the site manager of "Bestattungen Jehle" in Schongau.
The funeral home, which has other locations in addition to Schongau and belongs to mymoria GmbH – a company that operates throughout Germany – was previously also contractually bound to the Bavarian police.
"But I canceled the contract," says Engstler when asked by the local newspaper.
This is primarily due to time reasons.
In the contract, undertakers undertake to be on site in a maximum of one hour, but this is not always possible for Engstler's company.
"On the one hand because of the weather, on the other hand because of the currently high number of deaths," says Engstler.
As a result, the company is too involved to always be able to react immediately to current deaths.
Contract was "poorly negotiated"
According to the undertaker, the contract with the police was “poorly negotiated”.
For funeral directors in the Ostallgäu district, there is a rotation principle and no contractual commitment.
"The inspections call one undertaker after the other - if we have the time and capacity, we jump in, otherwise not." She would also like to see such an approach for the Schongau region.
"Currently, we simply cannot guarantee the terms of the contract."
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If there are no contractual partners, this poses a problem for the police. Stefan Sonntag, press spokesman for the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria South, said on request that the timely removal of the deceased could no longer be guaranteed.
"We need the companies, we can't do the transport ourselves." It's becoming increasingly difficult to find contractual partners.
However, he couldn't say what caused it.
There is a hardship allowance
A long-standing contractual partner for the police in the Weilheim inspection area is the “Bereavement Aid Denk”.
The funeral home has been working with the Bavarian police for almost two decades.
“That works very well too,” says Alfred Sand, operations manager for the Murnau and Bad Tölz branches, to which Weilheim also belongs.
In the Weilheim-Murnau area, there are around 60 to 80 police rescues per year, for which the "Bereavement Help Denk" is notified.
According to Sand, the deceased are always left where they are found.
"That means near the place of death," says the 55-year-old - if the nearest cemetery also has a cooling facility.
The prices for a rescue are regulated in the contract with the police.
In cases with special circumstances, for example opening an apartment only weeks after the death of the deceased, a "hardship allowance" can be calculated.
"Sometimes you spend several hours on the road per salvage operation," says Sand about the time required.
He has already been asked by the police for the Schongau area.
The journey times for the undertaker could not be managed in the prescribed time.
"I have my fleet in Murnau," says Sand.
Unlike in the Eastern Allgäu
The district of Weilheim-Schongau falls within the area of responsibility of the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria South.
According to police spokesman Stefan Sonntag, contracts are concluded with the individual undertakers and not - as is the case in the Eastern Allgäu - according to a rotation principle.
"So you know that you have a reliable partner," says the police chief inspector.
The contracts for the rescue and transport of the deceased on behalf of the Bavarian police will be concluded by the police headquarters as part of a public tender in accordance with the specifications of the so-called sub-threshold procurement regulations.
"This means that all undertakers who are interested in these contracts are given the opportunity to participate in this public tender on the relevant online portals." According to the police spokesman, the contracts are usually designed in such a way that small and medium-sized companies can participate.
The contract term is up to a maximum of five years.
By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Schongau newsletter.
And in our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter.
