About Friedhofskultur

Friedhofskultur

Friedhofskultur – with the subtitle "Zeitschrift für das gesamte Friedhofswesen" (Journal for the Entire Cemetery Sector) – is a German monthly specialist magazine on sepulchral culture, published by Haymarket Media in Braunschweig. Published since 1997 by the Verband der Friedhofsverwalter Deutschlands (Association of German Cemetery Administrators) in Berlin, the magazine describes itself as the only specialist journal for the entire cemetery sector. It informs cemetery administrators and gardeners about the profession's technology, business and culture, with an IVW-verified sold circulation of 2,064 copies (second quarter of 2023).

Overview

Friedhofskultur is the journal of the cemetery profession: the monthly magazine for the administrators who manage Germany's cemeteries, the gardeners who maintain them, the stonemasons, undertakers and suppliers who serve them, and everyone professionally concerned with sepulchral culture – the culture of death, dying, burial and mourning. As the only specialist journal for the entire cemetery sector, in its own description, it covers a world that most people encounter only as visitors but that is, for its professionals, a complex field of administration, horticulture, craftsmanship, law and culture.

The editorial program combines professional journalism with cultural reflection: reports on cemetery administration and law, on horticulture and grave design, on stonemasonry and monuments, on burial forms and funeral culture, and on the international developments – from sculpture exhibitions to the burial practices of different religions, from the greening of urban cemeteries to the digital memorial – that shape the sector. The magazine is also the advertising platform for cemetery nurseries and administrations – the marketplace where the sector's suppliers meet their customers.

The readership is precisely defined: cemetery administrators and gardeners, the members of the Verband der Friedhofsverwalter Deutschlands and the wider profession – the people who manage the tens of thousands of cemeteries across Germany, who design the grave fields, who advise the bereaved in their most difficult hours and who maintain the green spaces that are among the country's most significant cultural landscapes.

The magazine's cultural dimension distinguishes it from a purely technical trade journal: contributions on individual cemeteries – from historic park cemeteries to contemporary memorial landscapes – on art and sculpture, on the history of burial culture and on the sector's international developments reflect the understanding that the cemetery is not just an administrative unit but a cultural institution.

History

Friedhofskultur has been published since 1997 by the Verband der Friedhofsverwalter Deutschlands (VFD), based in Berlin. Until 2001 it appeared at the Neue Gartenbaumedien GmbH (NGM) in Aachen, temporarily in parallel from 2000 to 2006 also at the Thalacker publishing house in Braunschweig; since then it has been published by Haymarket Media GmbH & Co. KG, based in Braunschweig at Frankfurter Strasse 3d.

The predecessor was Deutsche Friedhofskultur, which appeared from 1952 to 1997 at the Dr. Rudolf Georgi publishing house in Aachen – itself the successor of the journal Der Friedhof. The lineage thus reaches back to the early post-war years, when the cemetery sector was rebuilding and organizing itself as a modern profession.

Over more than a quarter-century, Friedhofskultur has documented the cemetery sector's transformations: the changing burial culture – from the traditional family grave to urn burials, anonymous fields, tree burials, columbaria and the new forms of remembrance – the ecological turn in cemetery management with its emphasis on biodiversity and climate adaptation, the digitalization of administration from grave registers to online grave-finding, the growing cultural and religious diversity of burial practices – including burial areas for Muslims – and the sector's confrontation with economic pressures, demographic change and shifting customer expectations.

Special publications have marked the milestones: in 1999 a special supplement on commercial vehicles for the funeral sector, in 2007/08 a special publication on Friedhof & Bestattung – the editorial deep-dives that complement the monthly rhythm and document the sector's evolving service landscape. The magazine's reporting – from gravestones without child labor in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria to thefts and vandalism, from individual cemeteries to international sculpture exhibitions – has built an archive of the sector's recent history.

Content and Sections

The editorial program of Friedhofskultur follows the cemetery profession's reality. Administration and law coverage addresses the regulatory framework: cemetery statutes, burial law, fee structures, the management of cemetery areas and the legal questions – from grave rights to data protection – that administrators face daily.

Horticulture coverage addresses the green craft: grave design and planting through the seasons, the nurseries' products and techniques, the care of historic grave monuments and the ecological management of cemetery landscapes – the work of the cemetery gardeners who maintain these significant green spaces, which serve as urban biotopes, climate oases and places of quiet recreation beyond their memorial function. Stonemasonry and monument coverage addresses the craft of remembrance: gravestones, sculptures, inscriptions and the stonemasons who create them – including the ethical questions, such as gravestones produced without child labor.

Burial culture coverage addresses the sector's human dimension: new burial forms from forest burials to reef memorials, funeral ceremonies across traditions, mourning culture and the religious diversity of burial practices – the developments that are reshaping what a cemetery is and whom it serves. International reports – from sculpture exhibitions to the cemetery cultures of other countries – provide the comparative perspective.

The magazine also serves as the sector's marketplace: the advertising platform for cemetery nurseries, administrations, stonemasons, vehicle suppliers and service providers – the commercial infrastructure that the monthly journal supports.

Publisher and Organization

Friedhofskultur is published by Haymarket Media GmbH & Co. KG, based in Braunschweig – the publishing house of the TASPO group, the weekly newspaper for the green market that has appeared since 1867 and is the market leader in the German-speaking horticulture sector. The publisher's portfolio – TASPO, TASPO Baumzeitung, TASPO Gartendesign, TASPO Gartenmarkt and the TASPO Awards – makes Haymarket Media the leading media house of the German green industry.

The magazine is published by the Verband der Friedhofsverwalter Deutschlands (VFD), based in Berlin – the association of German cemetery administrators, whose members form the journal's core readership. The responsible editor is Roman Höfers. The magazine carries the ISSN 1864-4724 in print and appears monthly, with an IVW-verified sold circulation of 2,064 copies and a spread circulation of 2,593 copies in the second quarter of 2023.

Digital Presence

The digital home of Friedhofskultur is integrated into the TASPO group's online presence at taspo.eu/friedhofskultur, extending the monthly magazine into the digital channels of the green industry's media house and giving the cemetery profession a single digital address for its specialist journalism. The site provides access to the magazine's contents, media data and subscription information, serving the cemetery profession's information needs between print issues.

The Haymarket Media group's digital infrastructure – the TASPO portal, newsletters and social media – carries the Friedhofskultur brand into the daily online journalism of the green sector. The combination of the monthly print journal with the digital channels of one of Germany's leading horticultural media houses serves the cemetery profession in the formats it uses.

With more than a quarter-century of publication history, a monthly rhythm, its position as the only specialist journal for the entire cemetery sector and its integration into the TASPO media group, Friedhofskultur remains the central medium of the German cemetery profession – the journal that documents the sector's administration, horticulture, craftsmanship and culture, from the grave field to the sculpture exhibition, from the burial statute to the blooming memorial garden.