About Bestatter

Bestatter

bestattungskultur — published under the row's shorthand "Bestatter" — is the monthly magazine of the Bundesverband Deutscher Bestatter (BDB), the federal association of German funeral directors. Published by the Fachverlag des deutschen Bestattungsgewerbes GmbH in Düsseldorf, it appears monthly with a circulation of 3,700 copies, addressing the funeral profession's businesses and the industry's partners. Its program combines the trade's business and legal questions with the societal debates on death and burial: each issue follows a theme — from grief psychology and sustainability through funeral vehicles and the BEFA trade fair to artificial intelligence and the new burial laws. Under editor Eva Schmidt, the magazine is the funeral trade's professional forum and the burial culture's public voice.

Overview

The funeral trade occupies a unique economic and cultural position: the businesses that organize the last farewell operate at the intersection of commerce and ritual, of logistics and grief. bestattungskultur addresses this duality. Its program serves the funeral directors' professional needs — the business management, the legal developments (the burial laws differ by federal state), the products and services (from urns and coffins to funeral vehicles and hygienic articles), and the trade fair BEFA — while engaging the cultural questions: the changing burial culture, the grief psychology, the sustainability of burial, the diversity in the funeral craft.

The 2026 theme plan shows the editorial breadth: "Lebenslinien" (lifelines) with services for funeral directors; "Herzschmerz" (heartache) with grief psychology, funeral ceremonies and mourning cards; "Alles öko, oder was?" with sustainability, memorial jewelry and remembrance pictures; "Jetzt schon an danach denken" (thinking about afterwards already) with provision, decoration and flowers; "Die Welt zu Gast" with funeral vehicles and the BEFA 2026; "bunt im schwarz" (colorful in black) with diversity in the funeral craft; "Neue Wege zur letzten Ruhe" with the cemetery and national/international transfers; "Der beste Freund" with animals and burial, urns and coffins; "Ein Schlachtfeld?" with sea burial and war and death; "Schöne neue Welt" with social media, AI, and company presentation; "Ganz legal" with the new burial laws and professional clothing. The magazine's dual program — the trade's business and the culture's questions — addresses the funeral profession's defining tension. The funeral director is simultaneously the entrepreneur and the ritual companion: the business must calculate, but the bereaved must be met with humanity. A journal that covered only the business would miss the profession's meaning; one that covered only the culture would miss its economics. bestattungskultur's thematic issues institutionalize the balance: the urns-and-coffins issue beside the grief-psychology issue, the funeral-vehicles issue beside the sustainability issue, the AI-and-social-media issue beside the new-burial-laws issue. The 2026 theme plan's arc — from the lifelines through the heartache, the eco-question, the provision, the world as guest, the colorful in black, to the beautiful new world and the fully legal — reads as the profession's annual self-examination: what the trade sells, what the bereaved need, and what the society thinks about death.

History

The magazine's history is the organized funeral trade's history. The Bundesverband Deutscher Bestatter was founded on 23 March 1948 under the leadership of the Düsseldorf funeral director Theo Remmertz — the post-war founding era, when the profession organized itself in the Federal Republic. The association grew into the funeral trade's federal body: the merger of the state associations and guilds, representing the profession's interests, the crematoria, and the burial culture. The Fachverlag des deutschen Bestattungsgewerbes GmbH — the trade's own publishing house — developed alongside: offering the books on burial and grief culture, the mourning-music CDs, the posters and videos, the condolence articles — and the monthly specialist journal for the BDB's members.

The journal's program evolved with the burial culture's transformation: from the traditional earth burial through the cremation's rise, the anonymous and nature burials, the changing mourning rituals, to the digitalization (the social media presence, the AI) and the sustainability agenda. The association's institutional ecosystem — the Kuratorium Deutsche Bestattungskultur, the Stiftung Deutsche Bestattungskultur (supporting sepulchral-culture research and teaching), the Deutsche Bestattungsvorsorge Treuhand AG (the fiduciary administration of provision funds, recommended by Stiftung Warentest's Finanztest 2/2025), the German Institute for Thanatopraxy — forms the magazine's editorial network. Under president Ralf Michal (since October 2022) and general secretary Stephan Neuser, the association continues the monthly journal.

Coverage and Content

Each monthly issue follows its theme through the funeral trade's professional and cultural agenda. The business coverage treats the funeral companies' management: the services for funeral directors, the company presentation, the social-media and AI strategies. The legal coverage addresses the burial law's developments: the new laws in the funeral sector, the state-by-state regulations. The product coverage presents the trade's supplies: the urns and coffins, the funeral vehicles, the memorial jewelry and remembrance pictures, the decoration and flowers, the hygienic articles, the professional clothing.

The cultural coverage engages the burial culture's questions: the grief psychology (the mourning ceremonies and cards), the sustainability (the eco-burial), the provision (thinking about afterwards), the diversity in the funeral craft, the cemetery's future, the animals and burial, the sea burial, the war and death. The transfer coverage treats the national and worldwide repatriations — the logistics of the last journey across borders. The fair coverage documents the BEFA — the funeral industry's trade fair. The combination — the trade's business and the culture's questions — makes the magazine the funeral profession's complete forum.

Organization and Ownership

bestattungskultur is published by the Fachverlag des deutschen Bestattungsgewerbes GmbH — the funeral trade's own publishing house — in Düsseldorf (Postfach 10 23 34, 40014 Düsseldorf). The magazine is the organ of the Bundesverband Deutscher Bestatter e.V., the federal association founded in 1948, seated at Cecilienallee 5, 40474 Düsseldorf. The editor is Eva Schmidt; advertising is handled by Rosa Amador Marti. The association's president is Ralf Michal (since 27 October 2022); the honorary president is Wolfgang Zocher; the general secretary is Stephan Neuser.

Commercially, the magazine follows the association-press model: the members' subscription through the BDB, and advertising from the funeral industry's suppliers — the coffin and urn manufacturers, the funeral-vehicle builders, the memorial-jewelry producers, the software and service providers. The circulation of 3,700 copies reflects the specialized trade's concentrated reach: appearing mid-month, with advertising closing on the 15th and editorial closing on the 1st of the previous month. The Fachverlag's program — the textbooks for the Bestattermeister and the certified funeral director, the thanatopraxy training materials, the mourning-music CDs — makes the publishing house the profession's educational infrastructure: the journal informs monthly, the books qualify permanently. The association's ecosystem — the Kuratorium's public events and publications on the burial culture's change, the Stiftung's research funding from the societal handling of death through burial culture to grief psychology, the Treuhand's fiduciary provision administration — gives the magazine its institutional depth: the trade's questions are never merely commercial but always cultural, legal, and psychological. The "Bestatter vom Handwerk geprüft" mark certifies the quality the magazine's readers are expected to deliver.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is bestatter.de — the BDB's portal carrying the association's news, the press releases, the magazine's theme plans, and the trade's information: the member search, the provision information, the training and continuing-education offerings (the Bestattermeister, the certified funeral director, the thanatopractitioner). The Fachverlag's shop (shop.bestatter.de) sells the textbooks ("Bestattung in Deutschland," "Trauerpsychologie," "Todesfall und Bestattungsrecht"), the digital editions, and the trade's materials.

After decades — from the 1948 association founding through the burial culture's transformation to the present monthly — bestattungskultur operates as the funeral trade's magazine: the business and legal coverage, the product presentations, and the cultural debates on death and burial — monthly in print with its thematic issues and continuously online at bestatter.de, for the profession that accompanies the last farewell.