As of: January 22, 2024, 12:01 p.m
By: Ulrike Osman
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There should not be a natural cemetery like the one in Greifenberg (Natural Cemetery Ammersee, photo) in Landsberg.
The building committee said the demand for this was too low.
The Friedwald in Erpfting is now finally off the table.
© Ammersee Nature Cemetery
Landsberg - “A natural cemetery in Erpfting is buried.” There was applause at the Erpftinger citizens' meeting for this statement by the local spokesman and UBV city councilor Markus Salzinger.
The day before, the city council's building committee had unanimously decided that the city would not sponsor a natural cemetery - neither in Erpfting nor in Landsberg itself.
The possibility of creating a natural cemetery on a twelve-hectare site on Am Texet, adjacent to the forest cemetery, was examined.
The administration strongly discouraged this.
There is a gravel pit on the site, which excavated material was used to backfill.
“It seems very likely that earthworks at this point will expose corresponding waste deposits, which will then lead to follow-up costs,” said the presentation presented to the building committee.
Low demand
The city already offers options for natural burials.
Tree burials, green graves and meadow graves are possible, especially in the forest cemetery.
There will therefore be little local demand for a natural cemetery - i.e. a largely natural area without specially designed grave sites, for example a forest in which burials take place at the roots of the trees.
In order to run a natural cemetery profitably, 200 burials a year would be necessary, explained Robert Götz from the Landsberg city administration.
However, demand in the city is only 20 to 30. A natural cemetery would therefore have to be marketed “aggressively” nationally, which would lead to “funeral tourism”.
At the same time, it would compete with the forest cemetery and negatively impact its management costs, which would lead to higher cemetery fees.
Head of the Public Order Office Ernst Müller noted that the number of burials in the ground was declining sharply.
In view of the dissolution of graves, the rows of graves in the forest cemetery would eventually be transformed into “public green spaces” with individual graves.
Against this background, it certainly does not make sense to designate additional areas for burials.
Instead, the attractiveness of the forest cemetery, including for tree burials, should be emphasized.
No longer an issue
A peaceful forest southwest of Erpfting, which a private provider wanted to realize, had already been discussed in 2023 and rejected by a majority of citizens.
Development problems and the expected high traffic load for the district spoke against this.
The fact that the topic is now permanently off the table caused relief at the citizens' meeting in the Gasthaus Zur Sonne.