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GERMANY'S TIRED GRAVEYARDS: When Bodies No Longer Decay
Spiegel Online ^ | January 07, 2008 | Frank Thadeusz

Posted on 01/07/2008 1:35:23 PM PST by forkinsocket

Strange as it may seem, the dead have quit rotting in German cemeteries -- they are turning into wax-like corpses. Will the use of burial chambers solve the problem? Or is extensive soil reconditioning the only viable alternative?

Cemeteries are supposed to be the quietest places on earth. But that notion may soon have to be laid to rest: Exhumation experts are currently conducting large-scale digging operations in German graveyards, belying the very concept of eternal peace.

Corpses are no longer decaying in many German cemeteries. Instead, the deceased become waxen, an uncanny process that has become so rampant it can no longer be ignored.

A high moisture content in the subsoil combined with low temperatures and a lack of oxygen are the main culprits. These conditions transform the soft tissue of many bodies not into humus, but rather "a gray-white, paste-like, soft mass," says soil expert Rainer Horn from the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany.

As time passes, the remains of the departed coagulate to form "a hard, durable substance." When knocked with a spade, the wax-like bodies sound hollow.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Germany; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corpse; germany; graveyard; wax
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When bodies don't decompose, their graves can't be reused -- a common practice in Germany.

I had no idea that graves were reused in Germany. Do they do this in other places as well?

1 posted on 01/07/2008 1:35:25 PM PST by forkinsocket
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To: forkinsocket

I see a horror movie script in this...


2 posted on 01/07/2008 1:37:17 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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To: forkinsocket

Pictures?


3 posted on 01/07/2008 1:37:42 PM PST by nevergore ("It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.")
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To: forkinsocket

Yes..........I think in Hong Kong you have to pay rent......or out you go!........


4 posted on 01/07/2008 1:38:02 PM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: nevergore

5 posted on 01/07/2008 1:38:35 PM PST by evets (beer)
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To: forkinsocket

Stick a wick in them and light them up


6 posted on 01/07/2008 1:38:37 PM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: forkinsocket
I had no idea that graves were reused in Germany.

I remember someone telling me this, but I didn't believe it at the time.

7 posted on 01/07/2008 1:38:38 PM PST by SIDENET (Hubba Hubba...)
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: forkinsocket

Adiopocere?


9 posted on 01/07/2008 1:39:49 PM PST by mysterio
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To: forkinsocket

Forgone conclusion: Helen Thomas’ picture will be posted here.


10 posted on 01/07/2008 1:40:10 PM PST by gaijin
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To: forkinsocket

They ought to consider cremation.... after all they know how to build industrial strength crematoriums.


11 posted on 01/07/2008 1:40:16 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: forkinsocket

France. I believe Jim Morrison’s rental is up shortly.


12 posted on 01/07/2008 1:40:47 PM PST by TheThirdRuffian
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To: forkinsocket

Yes, in Columbia (Bogata, for sure)... .I read they do it after three years! Then they get cremated to make room. This is for the very poor.

Some other places if there is no one around for a LONG time to tend your grave.


13 posted on 01/07/2008 1:41:41 PM PST by dellbabe68
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To: evets

Boy, you’re good.


14 posted on 01/07/2008 1:41:55 PM PST by stevio ((NRA))
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To: Tijeras_Slim

SNORT!


15 posted on 01/07/2008 1:42:15 PM PST by Into the Vortex
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To: nevergore

16 posted on 01/07/2008 1:43:18 PM PST by forkinsocket
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Beat me to it Slim. :)

This is bizarre.


17 posted on 01/07/2008 1:43:53 PM PST by bill1952 (The right to buy weapons is the right to be free)
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To: forkinsocket
A high moisture content in the subsoil combined with low temperatures and a lack of oxygen are the main culprits.

Yup, another sure sign of Global Warming...

18 posted on 01/07/2008 1:44:48 PM PST by JRios1968 (Don't mess with tigers, for you are crunchy and chewy...)
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To: forkinsocket

I think all of Europe (and I’m sure Asia) “reuses” graves—and have done so since at least medieval times. I saw a medieval Jewish graveyard in Prague, Czech Rep. that couldn’t have been much over a quarter acre, and the guide told us they estimated 100,000 were buried there—12 layers deep.

When there is only one churchyard, even after it is full...you just dig a hole and bury...


19 posted on 01/07/2008 1:45:04 PM PST by AnalogReigns
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To: mysterio; aculeus; Billthedrill; AnAmericanMother
Adiopocere?

Close. Our words for the day are adipocere and saponification.

20 posted on 01/07/2008 1:45:07 PM PST by dighton
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