What happens to the ashes?

• You should keep the ashes at home in an urn.
• You place the urn in a communal niche in the crematorium’s columbarium for a maximum of 5 years.
• You scatter the ashes at sea or in / on a private grave, a children’s grave or a communal grave (i.e. an area designated for that purpose).
• You are scattering the ashes at a location chosen by the deceased or their next of kin on land not designated for that purpose. The landowner must give their consent. Make sure you have proof of this consent.
• You can have the ashes placed in an urn and interred in a columbarium, an urn wall or an urn column. The columbarium is located inside the Heidehof crematorium and is owned by the crematorium. Outside, at Heidehof Cemetery, the local authority has provided an urn wall and an urn column.
• You are having the ash container placed in an urn vault. This is a small burial vault with space for four ash containers.
• You can have the urn interred in or on a grave or a woodland urn grave.

What types of graves are there?

• A communal grave is used for the burial of bodies, the placement of urns and the scattering of ashes. The local authority holds what is known as ‘burial rights’ over the communal graves.
• A children’s grave is for children who have died aged 6 or under.
• The local authority grants burial rights for a private grave for a fixed term of 20 years.
• In the case of a burial right in a private grave for an indefinite period, the local authority is responsible for its maintenance for 100 years.

Memorial site, monument or memorial stone

Are you a next of kin of a deceased person whose ashes have been scattered or whose body has been donated to science? If so, it is possible to create a memorial site with a memorial or a memorial stone.

A permit for a memorial site costs money. You can apply for one here permit for a memorial for applications. The memorial plot is granted for a maximum of 20 years and can be renewed every 10 years.