German funeral Director to scatter the ashes over the Swiss mountains

When Peter Kramer flies to Switzerland, he has a special cargo on Board. Every few months, the 58-year-old undertaker from Bayern loads his Cessna with urns.

His Route takes undertaker Kramer mostly in the grison Alps. At an altitude of 10 000 feet, he pours the brought ashes of Deceased persons, by means of a stainless steel tube out of the pilot window. On request, Kramer is filming the whole process for the bereaved. Until a ballot box is emptied, it takes around a Minute. The ash is spread over an area of several square kilometers.

flight funeral Kramer calls his service, which he offers for almost 15 years. The offer in the Trend, he told a few days ago, a journalist of the "süddeutsche Zeitung". Less and less people want to leave, according to Kramer in a cemetery to be interred. Therefore, his Business is booming: Up to 30 times in the year, he loads the Cessna with urns – there are five to ten pieces. A flight over the Swiss mountains takes about three hours, the customers pay per urn, just under 400 euros.

About a Minute it will take, the narrow urn in the air to evacuate. Photo: photo: Private/oh

hundreds of pounds of ash is likely to have distributed the Kramer today on the grison Alps. And he's not the Only one: According to the "süddeutsche Zeitung" in Germany, "a number of other undertakers", who offer the same service as Peter Kramer.

The "legal niceties" are a misconception

the undertaker with the urn to Switzerland to fly, is on the one hand, with the German legislation, which prescribes a cemetery duty. And this can only be circumvented if a funeral take place abroad. On the other hand, flight, burials are forbidden in Germany.

feels Like the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" is Switzerland as a liberal. "There, members can take the urn with the ashes of the deceased, for example, home or in nature, disperse." These "legal nicety" made a Kramer and his colleagues to own.

however, This is a misconception, as now shows. Georg Thomann by the office for nature and environment Graubünden (ANU) knew nothing of commercial suppliers such as Kramer. Thomann says: "Such burials are not allowed, in my view, having regard to the Federal environmental legislation is quite clear and, therefore, illegal." It was an "illegal waste disposal". The ashes of the deceased to be applied in a cemetery or in a designated facility. At the same time violate flight, burials, according to Thomann but also in the protection of the environment applicable to the precautionary principle. Emissions, including the undistributed ash is one, are so limited as far as possible.

"be Serious" and not "worthy"

Outraged, too, Rolf Arnold, Vice-President of the Swiss Association of funeral services to stop responding. The spreading of the ashes from a plane was "irreverent," he says. "It contradicts the practice of a dignified burial." Especially as the large amount undistributed ash low rarely go only in the mountains, but also in populated areas.

The German air undertaker, however, believe in the law. Kramer refers to a Letter, let him, the Federal office for civil aviation (Foca) had 2008 to. In the Mail it says in fact: "The, not infrequently practiced verse from the ashes of a deceased man from an air vehicle" was permitted to the faithful on the Swiss territory, in principle, provided that it is located on uninhabited territory, and it was not thrown in the ballot box.

undertaker cancer, suddenly back

But times change, the lawyers in the Foca to assess the legal situation today is completely different. The Scattering of ashes from an airplane is not regulated by law, "and thus subject to authorisation," says Urs Ziegler, head of the section of the environment. And a permit from the authority granted only if the Canton agrees. In the case of Kramer, it never happened.

The Bavarian undertaker Kramer back to cancer, now all of a sudden. Actually, he's not flying one way or the other for two years in Switzerland, he says on the phone. However, he had taught in the "süddeutsche Zeitung" a few days ago a very different impression – namely, that it distributes to today on a regular basis with his Cessna over the mountains of Grisons ash.

It is conceivable that Peter Kramer must now face the consequences. A spokesman for the aviation authority Foca says: "We will clarify the facts and the undertaker contact." Possible that Kramer only is shown a yellow card. He could collect for his illegal Alps flights but also buses.

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Created: 09.11.2019, 22:03 PM