Germanys quest for a bargain to the grave
BERLIN, Nov 14 If you find it cheaper anywhere else, well pay you back the difference, plus 30, reads the advert not for the latest electrical device on special offer on the high street but for a funeral.
Germany, which bore discount supermarket giants Aldi and Lidl to the delight of bargain hunters, has seen a growing demand since 2009 for discount funerals, defined by the industry as costing under 1,200 (RM5,200).
Some people find themselves obliged by law to bury their father with whom they have not had any contact for 20 years, Hartmut Woite, head of the Berlin-based company Sargdiscount, or Coffindiscount, told AFP.
They do not want to pay thousands of euros, thats understandable. Everything is done by phone, by fax, by mail, he said.
Most people opt for a cut-price funeral because they are burying a distant relative; others choose it because of geographical distance and about 41 per cent cite financial reasons, Bestattungen.de said.
A classic funeral in Germany costs on average 2,800 to 3,500, or twice that if the plot and upkeep of the grave are included, according to the German undertakers federation.
But at Sargdiscount, they cost from 479, although that is only for orders placed by phone and entails a cremation in the Czech Republic with no ceremony and the ashes buried in a common grave.
The only thing that bothers my customers is the name of my company, Woite said, adding that he believed he had introduced transparency into a sector that was too secretive.
Naturally, the tren! d for di scount funerals has its critics.
Its not a question of transparency, Rolf Lichtner, spokesman for the German undertakers federation, said.
Less than 500, that doesnt even cover the costs. Either there are hidden costs, or the body is treated without dignity, he added.
But Patrick Schneider, whose firm Aarau operates across the country and offers funerals in Berlin for 499, hit back, saying: Dignity has nothing to do with money.
His low prices are down to ordering coffins in the hundreds rather than by the dozen, as well as getting special prices at the crematorium for being a good customer, he said.
Dressed all in black and with a carefully groomed white beard, Schneider organises funerals-to-order for his wealthier customers at a plush, antique-furnished countryside building.
By contrast, business for his 499 funerals is conducted at Aaraus spartan premises in Berlin where the only splash of colour can be found in a catalogue of urns laid on the table.
The quest for the cheap, the easy, what can be thrown away, now doesnt exclude burials, Dagmar Haenel, an anthropologist at the University of Bonn, commented.
At the same time we also have a rise in very individualised burials, sometimes very costly by rich and educated people, she said.
When it comes to funerals, the struggle of the classes is gaining ground. AFP-Relaxnews
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