Germany's tired graveyards (Stranger than fiction)
Posted on Saturday, 12 January, 2008
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. Corpses are no longer decaying in many German cemeteries. Instead, the deceased become waxen, an uncanny process that has become so rampant it can no longer be ignored. A high moisture content in the subsoil combined with low temperatures and a lack of oxygen are the main culprits. These conditions transform the soft tissue of many bodies not into humus, but rather "a gray-white, paste-like, soft mass," says soil expert Rainer Horn from the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany. As time passes, the remains of the departed coagulate to form "a hard, durable substance." When knocked with a spade, the wax-like bodies sound hollow. This "grave wax" buildup has disturbed the natural cycle of decay -- and created a horror scenario for burial authorities. When bodies don't decompose, their graves can't be reused -- a common practice in Germany. 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. Many German cemeteries today have far from ideal conditions. To make matters worse, the problem appears to be a homemade one: "Huge blunders committed over the past few decades" are to blame, says engineer Heinrich Kettler, who specializes in reconditioning soils that have become unsuitable for decomposition.
Source: spiegel.de
CB - like my teenage friends used to say this is our holy playgound. We are the only players here and we are the only umpires here. let's play the way we want :)
I would not even walk through the graveyard as it was old and grey some thing equal to a Sherlock homes movie scare me. I wuld rather take a hwole hours walk against going through that graveyard.
CB - even one of my friends had sex there with a lady in the Cemetry House once. To him that is safest place at no cost :)
In one of the main streets in Aberdeen - Union Street there is a large very old graveyard there and people used to go in there in the summer and sit on the tomb stones and eat their lunch sitting there - ugh ugh ugh how could they?
We used to drink alchol during middle of the night at the cemetery hall as teenagers to hide away from our families and gossipers. Nobody dare to check there exept us ;)
never in a month of Sundays would I go for such a home I would never feel safe. In fact I never put the light off at home as I imagine all kinds of things in the dark and at the slightest noise I wake up.
Can you imagine how it would be if I would live on a one time grave yard no thanks and I have to move away from this subject as I won't sleep tonight.
CB - Completly demolished and Remaing bones were burnt and ashes were put in to a Uran and deposited in a designated place (Box)
Did you not or you can't read my last comment to you, I don't want to discuss my comment with you finalamente!!!
Imagine having your bed on top of someones grave - I would never sleep one wink there.
I think they are places where people were laid to rest and they probalby believed they would be having it - ha can you imagine how many are turning in their grave literally. UGH
What happens to the gravestones? I know many cemetries in Germany which are beautiful with headstones over 500 years old so what happened here??
if you did not mean to pass judgement, i believe you. but you did do it.
saying that you don't like something is one thing.
saying that others that do like that something are displaying bad taste or somehow doing something that is not appropriate is passing judgement.
clearly some people do not like open discussion.
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"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
All the houses were sold bepore they completed the construction :) so there are ample supply of buyer who not scared chicken shit :)
Your opinion no interest to discuss this with you at all.
perhaps the words you chose did not accurately reflect your position, but when you say something is in bad taste, you are passing judgement.
when you say that posting on a particular subject is in bad taste, you are passing judgement on the person who started the thread.
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"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
You have your opinion and no offence taken just this subject and because I am related to Germany in many ways, I don't like it and I don't like the idea of the dead being disrupted - to be honest I would rather not know.
As i am well aware I do know that in some cultures and religions it is ill advised to talk about such matters. However even with my morbid interests in the subject there is no way Ill ever by a house on a consicrated burial ground that just to freaky even for me.
I don't like to talk about death and graveyards it's true you go ahead talk as much about death as you want it is a dead subject. lol However , it will make people aware not to obuy their house on a burial ground ha ha ha ha
That everybody has a different view when death is involved, some fell free to talk about it while others just dont. Obliviously with your persons exempted most people who have responded to this posting dont have a problem withit there fore I dont see the problem with disscussing this topic here.
I just don't think it is a good topic to discuss here on QL my personal opinion and I was in no way judging anything - you see how you jump to conclusions amazing.
As I will not be buried in my homeland nor according to their traditions I guess I don't have to make any suggestions for it.
However, good you are here, I will pass on your suggestions the Scottish government and they can contact you on QL lol.
is the same practice as in "Soylent Green"
switzerland reuses plots after 25 years. what else are they going to do if people choose burial over cremations and you have limited space?
to attach some kind of morality to this practice or say that this post is in bad taste seems a bit silly to me. any and every country that buries its dead will arrive at this point sometime in the future, so better to start thinking about how your homeland will deal with this problem when it arises instead of judging those who are currently dealing with it.
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"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
Have you people not seen Poltergeist! Building on a burial ground is a bad idea. :)
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Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
When you say relocated....does that mean they take all the 'residents' with them?
I heard the burial ground in Abu Hamour is going to be relocated soon to cater fron a New Development there ;)
Singapore :)
OMG!!500 houses on a burial ground!!! Is that in Qatar??
Not 1 house about 500 of them with swimming pools, Tennis courts, Club Hous, Squach courts.........etc. :)
Yikess!A house on a burial ground!
When they put chemicals in the soil the process is complete within a span of months - and i am not lying I know it for a fact.
There are natural means also, but idont know how long that takes
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CB - This for real. In Sigapore they do that. Ghost or no Ghost it fetch value of $$$$ Millions :) No wonder they so inovative and successful:)
it is not an uncommon practice. several years ago I read an article stating that a lot of countries used to do the same thing particicularly in areas were space is short but they usually wait 50years+ before they do it.
There was a film and can't remembe the name but they built a whole valley of house on a cemetry and then the dead came to rise yuck
Many countrys practice the same manner of burying their dead,
And many also use chemicals to speedup the decaying process
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They dig and remove bodies and later burn it in order to get rid Cemetaries in order to make way for Condominiums :)
I'm confused....I'm no mortician.. but I can't understand why they don't just leave them buried, surely graveyards aren't left for a number of years then used again? Ahh just read the article again, in Germany they DO bloody re use the patch OMG!!
when they remove the corpes after about 15- 20years from the original plot and cremate what is left of the remains. However in some instances tand when conditions are right the corpes have become mummified these they proudly display in a museum attached to the cemetary.
It sure is but a dead one.
They do of course, but soil has a natural plan for detieriation, now I am no expert, but I think that with all the chemicals they put on the dead bodies plus the type of wood etc. used and also the soil is only being used for graves, that the natural deteriation process is not kicking in so therfore the bodies are not disintigrating in the time that they usually did.
My guess only, if you use up fields too often without letting them rest for a year they will not produce so well law of mother nature I think.
why canary, its just a modern mystery
Infact its an environmental issue more than a mystery
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German Ghost He heheheehehe
Ghost inside LOLzzzzzzz
Am I missing something or do they not use coffins in Germany? I'm reading it like they throw the bods directly into the soil!! Is this a wind up??
bizarre!! Could it be a bit like the film Pet Cemetary?? Scary!
I don't care for the thread it is not in good taste.
I am sorry i didnt understand what you said
Did u mean u dont care abt dead people
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I don't care for this thread to much information over the dead - just when everyone thinks they have found their final hunting ground.