Rest in protest?! Funerals as a Care Revolution topic

Article in the Perspectives series by Francis Seeck(article as PDF) A scene in Berlin: "Parkfriedhof Neukölln: In front of the ceremonial halls there is a music stand with a note explaining the procedure for the official burial: "Funerals on 24 June 2015: 10:45 Waltraud S.; 10:46 Waltraud H.; 10:47; Lieselotte F.; 10:48 Karlheinz K.; 10:49 Andreas D.". Next to the music stand is a handcart in which the five white urns are transported to the grave. We go to the "green meadow". Five dug-out holes, green artificial turf laid out in front of them, two wheelbarrows full of earth on the left-hand side. At 10.45 a.m. the funeral procession arrives, consisting of the cemetery grave digger and a mourner". (Seeck 2016: 25) [caption id="attachment_2067" align="alignnone" width="750"] Five open graves in front of an official burial at the Neukölln park cemetery. Photo: Francis Seeck, Licence: All rights reserved[/caption] In Germany, burial is compulsory for the dead. It lies with the heirs and dependent relatives of the deceased. These include "the spouse or partner in a registered civil partnership, children of full age, parents, siblings of full age, grandchildren of full age and grandparents" (Senate Department for Health and Social Affairs 2007). The financial and social situation of relatives also determines how the dead are bid farewell and buried. In addition to the struggle for a good life, the conditions under which people die and mourn should also be the subject of a care revolution. Currently, more and more poor people in Germany, for whom no relatives are responsible for burial, are being buried by health and public order authorities without a gravestone and name, without funeral ceremonies and flower arrangements. Their belongings are also disposed of by the authorities after a few weeks. These burials are called "official burials" or "official burials" and affect people who have not concluded a funeral care contract and who usually die relatively isolated and in poverty. If the responsible public order or health authority is unable to locate relatives who are liable for burial within a short period of time, which in Berlin is seven days, the deceased are buried anonymously. In Berlin, around 2,000 to 2,500 people are buried in this way every year (see Schäfer 2013). Poor people and people who have lived in isolation or away from 'traditional' nuclear families are particularly affected by this state burial practice after their death. The implementation regulations of the Berlin Funeral Act stipulate: "The district office may not cover the costs of a funeral service, speakers or decorations for the hall" (Senate Department for Health and Social Affairs 2007). In some cases, such as in the Berlin district of Neukölln, the official funerals are held monthly as a collective funeral (see photo). On the first Wednesday of every month, people are buried there every minute. These people were often marginalised and socially excluded by classism, racism and psychosocial normality during their lifetime. One of these people was my father Uwe Beier, who died eight years ago in Berlin-Neukölln. I only found out about his death and the official funeral through an invoice from the Neukölln health authority. The fact that the probate office had already 'disposed' of all his personal belongings - he had written and painted poems and stories - with the remark that they had "not covered any costs", made it almost impossible for me to grieve. It was only after talking to other relatives, friends of people buried by the authorities and volunteers from cold protection centres (emergency shelters for homeless people) that I realised I was not alone in this story. Many people suffer from the conditions under which poor people, and especially people affected by multiple discrimination, die and are buried. These conditions make it impossible to have the right to remember and mourn and deny people recognition even after death." [caption id="attachment_2066" align="alignnone" width="750"] Back of the mourning hall at Neukölln Park Cemetery. Photo: Francis Seeck, Licence: All rights reserved.[/caption] I understand official funerals in the context of an increasing neoliberalisation of dying. In the spirit of the "end of life project" (Schneider, 2014, p. 130), people are encouraged to make provisions and to plan and pay for their own end of life. In 2004, the statutory health insurance death grant, which provided 1000 euros in the event of death, was abolished. People who are buried by the authorities are accused of not complying with the individualised call to make provisions and they or their friends are blamed for the inhumane burial. Even if relatives fulfil their duty to bury, many people can no longer afford to bury their relatives or friends. The number of social burials, for which the social welfare office bears the costs, has risen sharply since the abolition of the death grant. In 2005, the authorities in Germany still covered the costs of 7,695 social burials; by 2011, this figure had risen to 23,032 (cf. Schäfer 2013). Here too, the authorities usually do not finance flower arrangements or funeral services. According to the Diakonisches Werk, social burials and burials ordered by the authorities now account for around ten per cent of all burials in Berlin (see Diakonisches Werk Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz e.V. 2010). The municipality itself can determine which costs it pays for a social burial. In times of tight public budgets, savings are often made on social burials, but at the same time cemetery fees rise. While the social authorities of the city of Dresden pay 1450 euros for a cremation for the funeral service alone, in Berlin it is only 750 euros. Funeral practice in Germany is characterised by power relations, especially classism. Based on Andreas Kemper and Heike Weinbach (2009), I understand classism as individual, institutional and cultural discrimination and oppression based on a person's actual or ascribed socio-political or educational status. The unemployed, poor and homeless, for example, have few financial resources and are discriminated against on various levels, including through the devaluation of lifestyles and the individualisation of poverty (ibid.: 30). In addition to classism, regulatory burials are permeated by heteronormativity. For example, employees of Berlin's health and public order offices only inform relatives who are obliged to be buried about death. Friendships and social relationships beyond the family of origin and classic nuclear families are not informed about the death of the person. [caption id="attachment_2064" align="alignnone" width="750"] Public order burial at the Neukölln park cemetery. Photo: Francis Seeck, Licence: All rights reserved[/caption] This institutionalised approach to death means that not all people are equally grievable. Here, grievability is socially produced and is characterised by racism, classism, ableism and heteronormativity. The philosopher Judith Butler emphasises the connection between an unequal distribution of grievability and the recognition of lived life. She asks: "Who counts as human? Whose lives count as lives? And finally, what makes for a grievable life?" (Butler 2004: 20) I see it as an expression of a crisis of social reproduction that the gap between people who can afford a very expensive and personalised funeral and those who lack the money for a funeral is widening. However, there are also people who are working for change here: Initiatives are creating graves where poor people are buried with dignity, such as the "grave with many names" in Berlin Kreuzberg. These graves and memorials create alternative spaces for mourning where people who have been discriminated against due to classism or other power relations are remembered by name. Alternative undertakers establish non-profit networks to promote new ways of dealing with dying, death and mourning and advocate for humane social and official burials. Interventions take place at public funerals, but in a less visible way. Cemetery staff secretly open the doors of chapels or ceremonial halls and make them available to mourners who are unable to pay for them, mourners place named self-designed mementos on anonymous meadows and talk to each other about the practice of public order burials. The possibility of being buried by name and with a funeral service should not depend on the wallet of the deceased or their relatives and friends. The way in which people are buried and the opportunities their friends and loved ones have to organise this has a major influence on their ability to grieve. Society's treatment of the dying, the dead and mourners who are affected by discrimination and have few material resources at their disposal raises the question of the extent to which a society respects the human dignity of all. In addition to the conditions under which people live, we as care activists should also change the conditions under which people die and grieve. Sources Butler, J. (2004): Precarious life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso. Diakonisches Werk Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz e.V. (2010): Sozialbestattung eine Handreichung für Kirchengemeinden und evangelische Friedhöfe Kemper, A./Weinbach, H. (2009): Classism. An introduction. Münster: Unrast. Schäfer, C. (2013): Burials of the poor. Rest gently and cheaply. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 23 November 2013. Schneider, W. (2014): Worlds of death. An ethnography. Wiesbaden: Springer-Verlag. seeck, F. (2015): Interventions against anonymous burials by public authorities. Right to mourning using the example of the grave with many names in Berlin. "A grave for the homeless and poor - a place of remembrance." (Unpublished Master's thesis). Berlin Senate Department for Health and Social Affairs (2007): Implementation regulations on regulatory burials in accordance with Section 16 (3) of the Burial Act. url: http://www.berlin.de/sen/soziales/berliner-sozialrecht/land/av/av_ord_bestattung.html (1 August 2015)