Description
Aeternitas is a German consumer association for funerals and cemeteries, the “Verbraucherinitiative Bestattungskultur”. Its website explains how burial works in Germany, what each part of a funeral costs, the funeral laws of each Land and the rights of relatives.
It is a non-profit registered association based in Königswinter, near Bonn, funded by membership fees, donations and fees for talks and expert reports. Private members pay €12 a year (checked November 2026). Funeral businesses, cemetery administrations and other bodies from the trade can join as extraordinary members, from €150 a year and without a vote.
The cost pages give price ranges rather than averages: a whole funeral costs from €2,750 to €44,700 depending on the choices made, an urn grave in a cemetery €700 to €2,050, an urn grave under a tree €1,050 to €3,000. A database compares cemetery fees in about 1,000 municipalities. Each year Aeternitas works through Federal Statistical Office data: funeral prices rose by 3.1 % in 2025, faster than inflation (2.2 %), and by more than 20 % over five years.
Anyone can get a short first assessment by phone, letter or e-mail. Detailed advice is for members and, after a member’s death, for the relatives who arrange the funeral. Aeternitas also comments on draft funeral laws in the Länder, and has called for ashes to be allowed outside cemeteries.
Strengths
- Price ranges for every part of a funeral, from the coffin to the gravestone, and cemetery fees for about 1,000 municipalities.
- Membership costs €12 a year and gives a right to detailed advice, which also covers the relatives after a member’s death.
- Speaks for consumers on funeral laws, for example against the rule that ashes must be buried in a cemetery.
Weaknesses
- Detailed advice is for members only; non-members get a short assessment.
- Funeral businesses and cemetery administrations can be paying members, and members are offered funeral insurance through a partner, the ERGO group.
- In German, and about German law only.
Who it is for
Families in Germany who have to organise a funeral and want to know what the law requires and what a fair price is, and people who want to plan their own funeral in advance.