What kind of funeral service and what kind of burial do you want? And do you often think about your own death? A new survey shows what the adults in Germany answer.
Berlin – When looking at their own death, 80 percent of adults in Germany are modest. This is brought to light by a representative survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency. 21 percent say they didn’t want a funeral service for themselves at all, 34 percent wanted a very small funeral service only in the closest circle. 25 percent would prefer a rather small funeral service for family and friends. 6 percent would like it to be “rather big” with family, friends, acquaintances and colleagues, and “as big as possible” only 2 percent.
When it comes to how to proceed after the increasingly popular cremation, a clear majority is in favor of liberalization in Germany. 54 percent of adults think it should be allowed to keep urns at home.
On the other hand, 31 percent believe that urns should be buried in cemeteries or buried at sea. The rest didn’t specify. Women are more unequivocal (56 percent) in favor of lifting the obligation to use graveyards than men (52 percent). In addition, this attitude is much more common in eastern Germany (61 percent) than in western Germany (52 percent).
When looking at religious affiliation, a particularly large number of supporters of privately owned urns can be found among the non-denominational (63 percent) and among free church members (54 percent). Among the Muslims surveyed, for example, only 26 percent were in favor of it.
coffin no longer asked
The burial that was common in the past is no longer the preferred method when adults in Germany are asked about their own death. Only 14 percent would like to be buried in a coffin. On the other hand, 35 percent name cremation, 7 percent burial at sea, and 5 percent donating bodies to science. 13 percent reportedly don’t care how they are treated after death. The rest made no statement or called something else.
The relationship to cemeteries is quite divided in Germany: 30 percent say that they avoid visiting them (9 percent “generally”, 21 percent “if possible”). On the other hand, 20 percent like to visit cemeteries (of which 4 percent even “like very much”). 33 percent are quite indifferent and chose the answer “I associate neither positive nor negative feelings with visits to cemeteries”. The rest made no statement or stated that they were not concerned with it.
Many people hardly or reluctantly deal with their own mortality. Eight percent claimed to “never” think about their own death. 41 percent think of death “occasionally” and 27 percent do so “rarely”. On the other hand, 7 percent said they did it “very often” and 13 percent said “often”. dpa
