May I wear the ashes of a deceased relative in a pendant?

This is the most frequently asked question, and the answer depends on the country. Germany: not clearly regulated in law; most federal states impose mandatory cemetery burial (Friedhofszwang), which prohibits keeping ashes outside a cemetery. A few states (Bremen, and Berlin within limits) allow exceptions. Keeping a partial quantity of the ashes in a pendant is, in legal practice, often a tolerated grey area, but strictly speaking not permitted. Austria: permitted in some provinces and not in others; a hollow jewellery setting with a small quantity of ash is often tacitly accepted. Switzerland: largely permitted, varying by canton; entirely unproblematic in French-speaking Switzerland in particular.

What is *Friedhofszwang*?

Friedhofszwang - mandatory cemetery burial - is the legal obligation that bodies and urns be buried exclusively in a cemetery. In Germany it applies in most federal states to both coffin and urn burials; the ashes may neither be kept at home nor scattered freely (with exceptions for sea burial, woodland burial grounds and natural burial in approved sites). In Austria and Switzerland the rules are considerably more liberal - cantonal and provincial exceptions permit the private keeping of urns or the free scattering of ashes in many cases.

How does the ash reach an ash-jewellery workshop?

Three standard routes. Direct handover by the funeral director: after the cremation a small partial quantity of the ashes (often 1 to 5 grams) is removed and passed to the workshop; the main quantity is buried in an urn in the regular way. Handover by the family: the family receives a partial quantity of the ashes in person and passes it to the workshop. Handover via international workshops: workshops in the Netherlands, Switzerland or Belgium that sidestep Germany's strict burial rules receive the ash by specialist courier. The legal basis of this third route is disputed in the German context.

What is the legal position on memorial diamonds?

Memorial diamonds are mostly grown abroad (Switzerland, USA, Netherlands) and are subject to no direct statutory prohibition in Germany. Handing the ash over to the workshop, however, raises the same legal difficulty as with ash jewellery. In practice, a memorial diamond that has once been grown is treated as an ordinary piece of jewellery - the legal problem concerns the handover process, not the finished diamond. See also Memorial Diamond.

Burial Laws and the Ashes of the Deceased (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)

In Germany, ashes are largely subject to mandatory cemetery burial (Friedhofszwang); in Austria practice is more liberal and varies by state; in Switzerland it is largely unrestricted. This has concrete consequences for ash jewellery and memorial diamonds; the legal position is country-specific and still changing.

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