Overview
- A KNA survey shows fee income often covers only part of cemetery operating costs, with Stuttgart at 45 percent, Frankfurt at 56 percent, Cologne at 70 percent and Hamburg near half, while Munich reports fee revenue exceeding expenses.
- Bavaria now requires a second post‑mortem examination before cremation, effective April 1, 2025, adding a fixed €119 charge to funeral bills.
- Municipalities continue to adjust prices, with Munich lifting burial and cremation fees in 2021 and 2024, Nuremberg raising fees in 2023 and 2024 with further adjustments expected in 2026, and Regensburg increasing average plot charges by 44 percent at the end of 2024.
- Official 2024 data show prices for coffins, urns and gravestones rose 3.9 percent and funeral services and cemetery fees rose 4.6 percent, outpacing overall consumer inflation of 2.2 percent.
- Shifts toward urn, sea and tree burials are creating more municipal upkeep for freed areas, prompting management changes such as Frankfurt’s meadow conversions and triggering local disputes like Fintel’s fee rules, which a committee has urged the council to revise.