A Supplementary Report on the Results of a Special Inquiry Into the Practice of Interment in Towns.

SECTION I.. (1.) the Mixed Church and School Commission Has the Chief

(1.) The mixed Church and School Commission has the chief superintendence of all church, cemetery, and interment affairs.

The regulation of all matters relating to interments is conferred upon the legally-appointed Church and Cemetery Commission.

All officers employed in connection with interments are placed under the control of the said Commission, and it will be its duty to report yearly to the mixed Church and School Commission on the expenses and receipts, and the general progress of the institution.

(2.) The superintendence of the cemetery, of the sextons in their various employments, and of the house of reception, is given to an inspector, whose duties are hereafter described in the 2nd section.

(3.) For the performance of all the necessary arrangements preceding the interment, commissaries of interments are appointed to take the place of the so-called undertakers. These commissaries have to arrange everything connected with the funeral, and are responsible for the proper fulfilment of all the regulations given in their instructions.

(4.) In order to prevent the great expense which was formerly occasioned by the attendance with the dead to the grave, bearers shall be appointed who shall attend to the cemetery all funerals, without distinction of rank or condition.

To these bearers shall be given assistants, who shall be equally under the control of the interment commissaries.

(5.) A sufficient number of sextons and assistants shall be appointed to form the graves and assist at the interment.

(6.) There are four classes of funerals and interments. Every house of mourning may choose the class of funeral on paying the sum fixed for that class to the Church and Cemetery Commission.

All Christian interments, without distinction, can be conducted only according to these interment regulations. It remains open to the friends of the dead to attend the burial either in carriage or on foot; but this must be without expense to the house of mourning. The funerals of the town guards and of the soldiers of the line remain the same, but are only to cost a fixed sum.

If it be the wish of a family, the clergyman may attend the funeral, and he may perform a service either at the side of the grave, or, in case of bad weather, in the house of reception.

All interments whatsoever, except in extraordinary cases, where the police determines the time, must take place early—in summer before nine, in winter before eleven o’clock, in the morning.

The blowing of trumpets from the steeples, the attendance of women with napkins, the bearings of crosses, the attendance of the old-fashioned mourning coach, and also the use of the so-called “chariot of Heaven,” and the following of young handicraftsmen, which generally were an immense expense, are all given up. New carriages of a simpler and more respectable form, and such as are better suited to the object and to the greater distance of the cemetery from the town, shall be built.

The bodies of adults who are taken direct from the house of mourning to the grave, must be borne in the funeral carriage to the gate of the cemetery, where the bearers will convey the coffin to the grave.

The dead who have been placed in the house of reception must be borne in the same manner to the grave.

In exceptional cases, the dead may be borne to the grave by other persons; but this is only allowed when there is any particular cause of sympathy with the dead, or with the surviving family, and it must be free of all expense.

(7.) A complete and exact plan of the new cemetery shall be prepared, and all the graves shall be marked upon it.

Every place of interment must be numbered, which number must be engraved upon the plan as soon as it is taken.

The actuary of the Cemetery Commission shall keep a book, in which is entered, along with the number of the grave, the rank, age, name, and surname of the deceased.

(8.) Those who possess family vaults, family graves, or monuments, receive from the Cemetery Commission a document attesting their right, and they must also follow the regulations which are contained in it.

(9.) No grave can be opened till after the lapse of 20 years.

Hence, if a family grave-plot is full, and the oldest grave has not been closed 20 years on the occurrence of another death in the family, if it cannot be placed in the grave-plot of any other relative, it must be interred in the general interment ground, in the regular order and course.

(10.) The printed table of the cost of interment determines what sum is to be paid for funerals to the Church and Cemetery Commission.

Section Ii.—_the Duties of the Cemetery Inspector._

(11.) He is chosen by the Church and Cemetery Commission, and the appointment is confirmed by the mixed Church and School Commission.

In case the latter commission should find reason to delay the ratification, the grounds of the delay are to be reported to the senate, which will then order what is requisite.

The oath of the Cemetery Inspector must be taken before the younger Herr Bürgermeister, but his dismissal must be conducted in the same manner as his appointment.

He must be examined by the Sanitary Board, and must be found by them to be qualified. He must also be a burgher.

The Cemetery Inspector retains his situation during good behaviour, exact obedience to the interment regulations, and all other matters contained in his instructions.

(12.) The sextons and their assistants are under the control of the Cemetery Inspector.

He has to enforce the regulation that all those employed in the solemnities of funerals, or in the house of mourning, shall appear in good black clothes, and that no disorder, negligence, or defect, is permitted in the cemetery.

He has further to see that on the part of the sextons, or the gardeners, the neatness of the paths of the cemetery is restored after interments, as also that of the plantations and flower borders, as quickly as possible, and also that the mounds on the graves in the common ground are covered with green turf and kept in a pretty form.

(13.) The interments are to be notified by writing to the inspector of the cemetery by the Interment Commissary. This notification must be signed by the Church and Cemetery Commission, otherwise the inspector may not venture to order the sextons to form a grave.

One of the principal duties of the inspector is to keep a register of all the interments from these notifications, which register he must weekly lay before the Church and Cemetery Commission.

(14.) The coffins must, without any distinction, be lowered into the graves, and the inspector has to see that the necessary ropes are always in proper condition.

No less important is it for the inspector to be present at an interment, in order that by his presence nothing may be done by his subordinates, or by any other person, which should be contrary to the dignity of the interment or to the regulations.

(15.) The inspector must also inspect the family vaults, graves, and monuments, and keep a book, in which he enters statements of any repairs which may be necessary, and a notification of this is immediately to be sent to the Church and Cemetery Commission, without whose permission no alteration can be made in the graves.

(16.) The inspector has also the superintendence of the house of reception.

(17.) It is the duty of the inspector to treat all who have to apply to him with politeness and respect, and to give the required information unweariedly and with ready good will.

Under no pretext is he allowed either to demand or receive any payment, as he has a sufficient salary.

Section Iii.—_on the Interment Commissaries._

(18.) On the motion of the Church and Cemetery Commission, the Consistory names four Interment Commissaries for the Lutheran community.

For the reformed church in Franckfort two Interment Commissaries are chosen by the reformed consistory from those proposed by the Church and Cemetery Commission. Amongst those persons proposed by this commission, there must be included not only the present clergymen of the two reformed communities, but the clergyman at all times must be proposed.

The Catholic has also an Interment Commissary, chosen by the Church and School Commission from those proposed by the Church and Cemetery Commission.

The list proposed for every such appointment must include, at least, three burghers, fit to fill the situation.

The appointment is given during good behaviour, and the commissary must take an oath that he will truly and exactly follow the regulations, and that he feels it his duty to perform all these and any other particular instructions which he may receive.

(19.) To each of the three Interment Commissaries of the Lutheran community four districts are given, in which they must superintend all that has to be done from the death to the interment in their community.

The two Reformed commissaries, as well as the Catholic, have to take care of everything connected with interment in their communities.

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