Germany's tired graveyards

Strange as it may seem, the dead have quit rotting in German cemeteries -- they are turning into wax-like corpses. Will the use of burial chambers solve the problem? Or is extensive soil reconditioning the only viable alternative? Cemeteries are supposed to be the quietest places on earth.

But that notion may soon have to be laid to rest: Exhumation experts are currently conducting large-scale digging operations in German graveyards, belying the very concept of eternal peace.

View: Full Article | Source: spiegel.de

Contrary to many other countries, where final resting places are traditionally maintained in perpetuity, Germany recycles cemetery plots after a period of 15 to 25 years.

Experience has shown that the earthly remains of the deceased rot away almost entirely in this amount of time, but only under favorable soil conditions.

my goodness, that's not long at all. So 15 years after a loved one dies, you have no grave to visit?? someone else is in the space. I don't like the idea of that at all

^^

Me Neither. It sort of makes the point of burying someone in that special place seem pointless...if in 15 or so years its basically going to be a double grave.

Its an interesting story though.

When knocked with a spade, the wax-like bodies sound hollow.

OMG can you imagine walking through a cemetery and seeing a Gravedigger, smacking the crap out of a dead body with a shovel just to see what it sounded like?

And yea that 15yr turn around period on the graves is a bit odd, isn't it?

Why not just cremate people. From ashes to ashes as the saying goes. No need for the body to linger. Afterall, the soul (if you tend to believe in it as I do) is not there anymore. Just the shell. Leave the land for the living is a better idea wouldn't you say????

Why not just cremate people. From ashes to ashes as the saying goes. No need for the body to linger. Afterall, the soul (if you tend to believe in it as I do) is not there anymore. Just the shell. Leave the land for the living is a better idea wouldn't you say????

Seems like a cost saving idea. Soil reconditioning is probably expensive.

Lapiche

I certainly don't want to be burried in Germany .

Why not just cremate people. From ashes to ashes as the saying goes. No need for the body to linger. Afterall, the soul (if you tend to believe in it as I do) is not there anymore. Just the shell. Leave the land for the living is a better idea wouldn't you say????

It's a religious thing I think. If my memory serves, some believe your bodies will be needed to rise again when the second coming is upon this world. Same concept as Pharaohs in Egypt in a way.

that is sick that the corpses aren't decomposing normally, weird. that's good they are reusing the graves instead of making more cemeteries, to waste all of the precious land that we live on.