We are all individuals after all!

… why should it be any different after death?

At the outset of this study we asked people about their ideas of a personal burial. Very quickly it became clear that the imagination of the individual is virtually boundless in this field. Or rather, it would be. For if it wasn’t for the countless restrictions of church and public institutions or the often antiquated ideas of “advising” funeral directors there would already be a large variety of much more individual and personal forms of the final journey.

We were amazed to see how intensively people think about their death and their interment throughout their lives. We asked our parents and children, friends and strangers, we asked in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, England and in Asia. And we got replies that were impressive and so complex that we could fill an entire book with them.

The answers were extremely multifarious and it became clear that there is no such thing as the form of burial which is valid and appropriate for everybody.

But it also became clear that cremation today may offer the most flexible options for an individual burial...