Crematorium

Prompt cremation
After delivery of the deceased by the funeral home you have commissioned, the deceased will remain in the crematorium's cold storage room or, if desired, in a laying-out room until they are released for cremation. A ceremonial farewell can also take place there. The average time until cremation is two to four days, a period which we as the cemetery administration try to keep as short as possible. You are also welcome to arrange the time of cremation individually with us and attend the entry of the coffin. Please discuss these wishes with us in good time.

Shaping the memorial
You also determine the form of farewell for a cremation. The crematorium at Hüls cemetery has various attractive rooms available for this purpose:

• Large mourning hall, 380 square meters, 180 seats
• Central mourning hall, 210 square meters, 120 seats
• Small mourning hall, 85 square meters, 30 seats

The design of these rooms with strip lighting or partitions in antique or opal glass/lead in combination with candles and plant decorations creates an atmosphere that is both dignified and comforting.

Individual farewell
Every culture and religion has a different approach to death. The form in which you would like to organize the funeral service depends entirely on your ideas and is not tied to the location of the Aachen crematorium or to a specific religious ceremony.

Diverse forms of burial
As the wishes regarding the form of burial have varied widely, the city of Aachen offers ten different types of burial for urns at its 28 cemeteries. The burial options range from burial in an anonymous special urn field to near-natural urn tree graves and burial in a columbarium. The type, design and use of gravesites in municipal cemeteries is regulated in the cemetery statutes for the city of Aachen.

Delivery
As a funeral director, you have the option of delivering the deceased to the Aachen Crematorium, Wilmersdorfer Straße 50, at any time. On weekdays, the opening hours are from 6 am to 4.30 pm (crematorium/cemetery bell). Outside of these opening hours, the key for access to the delivery area (double-leaf main gate, entrance door next to the roller shutter door, fire department cooling cell no. 8 and 9) is available all year round at the main station of the Aachen professional fire department, Stolberger Straße 155.

What else is important?
For the rest of the process, it is important that you attach a coffin label with the details of the funeral home and the deceased to the head of the coffin lid and fill in the posting form and place it in the designated letterbox, together with any other documents.

Every day, a member of staff checks the reception cold rooms and transfers the deceased to the cold rooms at Aachen Crematorium or Hüls Cemetery on the basis of the consignment notes.

The crematorium has a large cold room (120 spaces), two cold rooms (no. 14 and 15, six spaces each) for mortuary passports and the cold rooms (no. 16 and 17, six spaces each). In a farewell room, the bereaved can say goodbye to the deceased in peace and in consultation with the mortician.

Official medical examination
The official medical examination (second post-mortem examination) for cremation and for transfer abroad takes place daily at the Aachen Crematorium by the official physicians of the Aachen City-Region Health Department.

Required documents
In order to carry out the cremation of the body promptly, the administration requires various documents:

• Consignment note
• completed and signed application for cremation
• legible copy of the applicant's identity card
• Confidential and non-confidential part of the death certificate
• two death certificates or clearance from an external health authority or clearance from the public prosecutor's office for the purpose of burial and cremation
• the last wishes of the deceased or the cremation order of the next of kin
• an urn reception certificate if the deceased died outside Aachen and is not to be buried in an Aachen cemetery.

Urn delivery
If all the documents are complete and the second post-mortem examination has been carried out without any reservations on the part of the public health officer, cremation at the Aachen crematorium is usually carried out within two to four working days. The urn can then be collected by your company or we will send it to the desired destination.

No, there are no restrictions regarding the place of residence.

Several funeral halls of different sizes are available for funeral services in the Hüls cemetery area. By arrangement, a room in the crematorium area can also be made available for farewells in the closest circle. In addition, after consultation with the funeral director and the crematorium manager, the farewell ceremony can be combined with the cremation.

Yes, this is possible after consultation with the crematorium manager.

The coffin is fed into the cremation oven. Cremation takes place in the oven at temperatures between 800°C and 1200°C within two hours. Immediately after the cremation process, the ashes are cooled in a cooling compartment of the cremation furnace for one hour. The ashes are then fed into the ash processing plant. In free fall, the ash is freed from magnetic components (e.g. coffin nails or staples) by a rotating permanent magnet. With a grain diameter of 4 mm, the ashes of the deceased fall into the urn. This is sealed with the urn lid, on which the following data is written: Crematorium Aachen, cremation number, surname, first name, date of birth, date of death and cremation date. The urn capsule is sent or taken to the cemetery designated for burial.

Every deceased person is placed in a cold room after being brought to the Aachen crematorium. Once the necessary documents are available (cremation application, death certificates for confidential and non-confidential parts, death certificate), the second post-mortem examination prescribed by law is carried out by the public health officers of the Aachen city region. Once this has been approved, the cremation date is set. These conditions usually result in a period of two to four days until the urn is handed over.

At the second post-mortem examination, a public health officer determines whether the deceased died of natural causes. Cremation is only permitted after natural death has been established. If a reliable cause of death cannot be determined, the doctor must obtain information from the doctors who treated the deceased before his death. If the information is not sufficient or if there are indications that the deceased died a non-natural death, the public prosecutor's office will be notified. In such cases, cremation may only be carried out once the public prosecutor's office has approved the cremation in writing. The second post-mortem examination is carried out on the premises of the crematorium.

For the purpose of repatriation abroad, a medical officer will determine whether the deceased died of natural causes. Only then will the document for repatriation be issued.

This is not possible under the current burial laws. All coffins and urns must be buried in a cemetery.

In principle, the crematorium can be chosen freely. Information can be obtained from the respective mortician.

According to the legislation, cremation is permitted at the earliest 48 hours after death. As a rule, this is the minimum time required to complete the formalities. The registry office must certify the death and a burial certificate must be issued. The deceased must be laid in a selected coffin and transferred to the crematorium. After the transfer to the crematorium and handover of the burial papers as well as the second post-mortem examination, the cremation will usually take place within the next three working days. The coffins are kept refrigerated during this time.

Provided that the coffin in which the deceased is embedded complies with the guidelines required for cremation, this coffin will also be added to the process. Coffins that do not meet the requirements will not be accepted and must be replaced by the appointed funeral director. It is not possible to receive, store or cremate a deceased person without a coffin.

In principle, a coffin is required, which is also cremated with the deceased. It is not possible to receive, store or cremate a deceased person without a coffin. The coffin must comply with the guidelines required for cremation.

A fireproof stone engraved with a registration number is placed in the coffin. The cremations are carried out separately from each other. This ensures that only the ashes of the deceased are placed in the urn with the identifying stone. The urn is officially sealed and permanently engraved with the name, date of birth, death and cremation of the deceased as well as the cremation number and name of the crematorium. This means that the ashes can still be assigned to the deceased years later.

The cremation chamber of a cremation furnace can only accommodate one coffin. The cremations are therefore carried out separately from each other. This ensures that only the ashes of the deceased are placed in the urn.

Crematoria are subject to the strict provisions of the Federal Immission Control Ordinance (27 BImSchV) and the VDI guidelines. The coffin industry is also subject to environmental regulations, meaning that only materials that are not expected to have a negative impact on the environment may be used.