A Bright Idea in the Black Forest

Bob Keller lived during 2007 in Buchenbach, Germany, a village located between the Rhine and Danube. He serves on the board of the Whatcom Land Trust; the above are his personal opinions and not those of the trust.

“On October 20, 2006, the Black Forest community of Oberried opened a hillside natural burial ground for urns. High in the hills of the Black Forest those who have died can find their final resting place under fir, beech and maple trees, realizing their wish to be buried, far from the bustle of modern times, in a simple grave amidst the sublime peace of these hills. An interment here not only leaves the care of graves to Nature, it also creates the opportunity to make provision for yourself and your family in your own lifetime. More and more people are expressing interest in this type of interment and have decided in favor of a grave on our “Hill of Rest.” — (Web site “Ruheberg Schwarzwald/Oberried,” http://www.ruheberg.de)

For a quarter-century at Western’s Fairhaven College I taught courses about “Death and Dying.” The approach was multidisciplinary. Students examined literature, music, economics, poetry, art, biology, euthanasia, coffins, caskets and cremations. They read the New Testament and about the deaths of Socrates and Ivan Illych. We visited graveyards, stockyards, mausoleums, mortuaries and morticians while also learning about wills, forensics and funeral customs worldwide. Eventually we pondered our own destinies. The class ended by observing an actual (i.e. “live”) human autopsy — nothing can make death more real or final.

Students being students, questions often arose about the wisdom of American burial and cemetery practices, practices which some considered expensive, wasteful and barbaric. Thus, while living in Germany this fall, it fascinated me to discover an unusual nearby site for dead bodies. It is called the Ruheberg (Hill of Rest) covering 35 hectares (ca. 90 acres) of land above the village of Oberried in southwest Germany’s Black Forest.

This innovative concept is as simple as it is different: an individual or family selects and rents a tree in the forest, thereby acquiring a right to inter up to 12 people in a circle around that tree. Remains must be cremated, placed in a plain wooden urn with no preservatives, and buried 10 feet distant from the trunk of the tree to which a small nameplate and simple message may be attached. Eventually ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The tree can never be logged; when it dies the fir or maple returns to the soil and may be replaced by a seedling. To date, over 350 trees have been selected and more than 60 people interred.

Why would anyone choose such an unorthodox final resting place? For several reasons.

First, traditional death customs in Germany are expensive. Funeral and mortuary services can cost up to €15,000 ($22,500 U.S.), including a cemetery site which is rented, not purchased. The grave must be properly maintained (€20-200 per year) and the lease renewed after 15–25 years; if a lease expires the gravesite will be leveled and the remains disposed of in order to make room for another coffin. This is not very restful. (In the U.S. similar services may run up to $7,500 depending upon personal needs and preferences.)

A rental tree in the Ruheberg with up to 12 burial sites costs €3,000 – 3,500; single sites surrounding Gemeinschaftsbäume (collective trees) are available for €390. Cremation and interment expenses add up to about €2,500. Rent may be renewed for another 40 years after the final burial. To date, even at these lower rates, the Ruheberg experiment has been (as the mayor puts it) “moderately” profitable for the Oberried community.

Second, the Ruheberg provides a means to conserve resources (no lawns, headstones, wood, concrete, plastic or metal). It preserves forestland and reduces pollution. Individuals can also decide to plant a new tree for themselves, including rare yew and holly. The program clearly has less impact and is more environmentally friendly than other practices in Germany or the United States.

Finally, people may prefer to ultimately “rest” in deep woods rather than in a graveyard, mausoleum or on a fireplace mantel. In the Black Forest they, or at least their descendents, enjoy views from high ground of 3,600-foot elevation. Birds fly by while other creatures hunt, creep, sleep and mate among the trees. The wind sings its many stories day and night.

Some of us also believe that woods and forests rank among the most crucial biological engines on earth (see Jared Diamond, “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” Viking, 2005). We tree-huggers can actually become fired up over joining a timber stand. One also hopes that visitors might find such a burial ground more restful and inspiring than Forest Lawn or even Bayview. At least it would be nice for families to have this option.

Creating the Ruheberg involved several years of controversy. Objections arose, requiring open public discussion, before the plan was adopted. Similar ideas have begun to emerge in America through the “green burial movement.” In the U.S. we find increasing preference for simple home burials (illegal in Germany) as well as for concrete “memorial reefs” containing ashes deposited at sea.

Some imaginative Germans have led the way. Now is the time for residents in the Fourth Corner to think in new directions. The place to begin is with a book by Mark Harris, “Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial” (Simon & Schuster, 2007), available at Village Books in Fairhaven. §