A quiet forest on the island of Usedom. Individuals, families or other people who are connected in life can be buried in the rest forest.Imago Images
dr Julian Heigel became an undertaker in a roundabout way. The 41-year-old had previously studied music and theology. In the interview he talks about his career path, alternative types of burial and the increasing desire for individually designed farewells to the deceased.
Mr. Heigel, you are a career changer and studied theology and music to become a teacher before you switched to the undertaker’s branch. How did this change to a completely different area of work come about?
The sum total of the two subjects music and theology are not that far removed from the profession of undertaker. But it was more like the job found me and not the other way around. I had already heard about the alternative funeral director’s job and looked it up and in 2015 I did an internship with a funeral director. That’s when I realized that I wanted to be a funeral director.
Private/Thanatos burials
To person
Is Berlin a good city to die in?
Berlin has a whole range of contacts, hospices and facilities for palliative care. So there are a lot of offers that you often have to work out yourself. This means that if you find yourself in a situation where the death of a relative or your own is foreseeable, there are offices and institutions you can turn to. But often you have to do it yourself. So you could say that Berlin is a good city to die in. But also a city with a lot of personal responsibility.
Are funeral requests in Berlin different from those in other German cities?
In Berlin there are traditionally many cremations, while in southern Germany the classic burial is more desired. As far as the arrangement of the funeral ceremonies is concerned, you can already see a trend towards individualization, which mainly emanates from the large cities in Germany and thus also from Berlin.
What does this customization look like?
The mourning communities often no longer want to celebrate according to the usual formula, i.e. the classic celebration with a sermon and wedding speech by the pastor, large wreaths on the grave or floral decorations on the coffin and the Ave Maria for the procession. The spiritual accompaniment is no longer set from the outset, but rather the wish is expressed to organize the celebration freely. Today, people tend to make decisions based on how they find it helpful and good for themselves, how a funeral service should be conducted, and no longer on the basis of denomination and religious aspects.
What kind of design wishes do people in Berlin approach you with?
For many, self-determination is important and the fact that they are not faced with any authority telling them how to do it or working through it schematically because that’s the way it should be. Funeral ceremonies are no longer automatically held in the cemetery, but more and more often in the place where the deceased liked to be. Many also want a different arrangement of the chairs, not like in the past, where you sat strictly one behind the other and faced the pastor, but more often in a semicircle around the coffin, for example.
What do you think makes a good funeral?
That is laughed and cried. Just that space is given to all the feelings that are present. It’s not always all just sad, there are often funny moments or funny situations that you remember, you don’t have to suppress them.
Does that mean there has been a kind of rethinking of how to deal with grief?
There is certainly a kind of awareness in society as a whole as far as the self-design of such a farewell is concerned and also the fact that you don’t have to bow to any conventions, of which there aren’t that many in Berlin anyway.
Has the pandemic changed that?
In any case, the pandemic has given the funeral industry a boost in digitization. Suddenly, for example, you have to hold funeral services that are broadcast on the Internet. There were also great fears of contact with corona dead in the truest sense of the word. At the beginning of the pandemic, not that much was known about the virus either, but that has now changed and is returning to normal. Of course, that can change again in autumn.
Funeral services aside, how have burials changed?
There is an increasing desire to be buried in nature, for example in a burial forest, Friedwald is the most represented brand there, and not in a municipal cemetery. The urn is buried at the foot of a tree and there is no fixed chapel, only a place of worship, where the funeral service usually takes place. Even after that, there is no visible burial place, only a small sign on the tree, which points to the surrounding buried. However, this is not the most environmentally friendly method of burial because cremation is a prerequisite for it. I think it’s a shame that the trend is moving away from cemeteries, I think they’re important places in cities. In this way, death and mourning are moved to a forest, which is usually more difficult to reach than a city cemetery. Cemeteries can also be very beautiful, such as the Old St. Matthäus-Kirchhof in Schöneberg or the Old Luisenstadt Cemetery on Bergmannstrasse. My insider tip is the Grunewald-Forst cemetery, certainly one of the most idyllic cemeteries in Berlin.
I had read about a so-called compost funeral. What is that and does it also exist in Berlin?
The body is decomposed over a period of 40 days in an above-ground cocoon and in the end only the earth remains, which, however, has to be buried. There is still the obligation to go to the cemetery. As far as I know, this procedure does not yet exist in Berlin. From an ecological point of view, however, this is certainly the very best option for burial, there are no residues, only the earth. That could already become a trend.