"Armenbestattungen" im modernen Sozialstaat – Zeitliche Entwicklung, Ursachen und Probleme des Ordnungsbestattungswesens in deutschen Groß-und Mittelstädten

In: Zeitschrift für Sozialreform: ZSR = Journal of social policy research, Band 62, Heft 3, S. 301-329

Abstract

Abstract
Due to demographic change and pluralizing ways of life, many of Germany';s deceased nowadays do not have next of kin who are willing to bury them. Usually, their burials are carried out by public order offices (POO). Based on an analysis of a random sample (N = 66) of data on POO-burials in German cities with more than 20.000 inhabitants, the first part of the article concludes that POO-burials have increased significantly during the period from 1994 to 2013. The statistical analysis also shows that men are almost two times more likely to be buried by a POO than women. The second part of the article analyses four typical situations that result in a POO-burial. It shows that the burial law's implicit assumptions about the structure of the social fabric are way too undifferentiated nowadays. This mismatch produces a series of normative difficulties and extremely problematic practices.