In Berlin Blawg, Dennis Sevriens shows part of a patent application for an urn with four compartments (including the diagram).
In this way, the cry ‘Mit ihm ist ein guter Anwalt gestorben’ could be replaced by ‘Mit ihm sind drei gute Anwälte gestorben’, although perhaps only following a big law firm’s works outing.
The patent application was made by Hannelore Krug, Sascha Krug and Tanja Krug, so there should be room for one more.
I don’t really get this. If you want to share an urn with other people, do you really need different compartments? Is it very important that the ashes do not mix (and if so, why)?
Birgitte: that was my thought exactly. But for all I know there may be bureaucratic requirements. At all events, as far as I know you can’t be handed your relative’s ashes in Germany. That sounds to me as if the authorities would have to accept the four-in-an-urn idea and they would have to die at the same time.
It’s odd how themes converge. Another recent item (completely unrelated) deals with another twist to the question the logistics of being buried with the one(s) you choose.
Oh. If it weren’t too easy, one could sneer at the orderliness of the Germans…
Also, it seems that the patent is not only for multi-person urns, but also for multi-person coffins (even if there is no diagram of the latter).
Birgitte: I had a look on the Internet, and there is no more to the patent. It’s a bit odd in that one imagines the multi-coffin would have a different system, and they also refer in the text to urns that would slot together.
Dear Abby: Obviously this topic concerns people more often than I realized.
Oops, I didn’t mean to post the Dear Abby link anonymously. That was me, the other Margaret.
Ah – now I recognize you, Margaret!