Berlin/Chemnitz, May 29 (CTK) – More and more Germans are buried in the Czech Republic in the recent years thanks to the lower costs of the funeral and a less strict law related to the handling of the bodily remains, Olaf Schuster, who provides funeral services in the Saxon city of Chemnitz, has told CTK.
Schuster has been offering funerals in the neighbouring country for more than 15 years. He decided to do so when he found out that it is much cheaper to bury one’s dead in the Czech Republic, which is only a 40 minute drive away from Chemnitz.
Around the turn of the millennium when Schuster started offering funerals abroad, the Czech Republic still was not a member of the European Union. It joined the bloc in 2004.
At first, this was a step taken by people who said they could not afford to arrange a standard funeral, Schuster said.
He said it has gradually turned out that these funerals are not a forced decision made by a limited number of poor people. Arranging funerals across the border has become a rather popular solution in the Chemnitz area, he added.
At present, Schuster’s funeral parlour offers the basic package of services for 1,400 euros. This package includes taking over the remains of the deceased in the area of Chemnitz and their hygienic treatment, arranging the formalities, cremation in Hrusovany and the burial at the local cemetery.
Hrusovany is a Czech village in northwest Bohemia, situated about 30 km from the German border.
The standard price of a funeral in Germany is approximately 3,000 euros, or twice as much.
Though some people decide to have a funeral in the Czech Republic due to their lack of money, while others want to save costs when a relative that was not very close to them dies, the largest group of clients are people who for example want to scatter the ashes of the deceased in a river or some other place he or she liked, which is not allowed under the German legislation.
“People are obliged to bury the deceased in Germany. If people are cremated, their families must tell in advance where the ashes will be buried and the German authorities can later check this,” Schuster said.
However, if the cremation takes place in the Czech Republic, the German authorities do not monitor what happens with the ashes. This is why not only people from Saxony but also from Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia arrange these cremations, Schuster said.
He said the number of his clients ordering funerals in the Czech Republic multiplied over the past five years.
Other German funeral parlours offer funerals in the Czech Republic as well. One of them even offers a one-day coach trip from Leipzig to Hrusovany costing 34 euros for people to see the local crematorium and cemetery and get acquainted with the legal requirements.
