Germans Bury Dead Without Clothing

1918

Permit Only Paper to Be Wrapped About Bodies to Be Interred

The Germans are expected to strip their dead before they bury them. Bodies are to be placed into the coffins without a stitch of clothing. They may be wrapped in paper, however. This is the only concession made to the relatives of the dead, whose feelings are hurt by the order.

Clothing is very scarce in Germany. Every scrap counts. The government has no use for sentimentalists who would squander garments on the dead while the living are without clothes. The rules and regulations regarding burials are not observed strictly enough by the population of Munich, says the Neueste Nachrichten. According to a report published by the mayor's office there were 936 men buried in Prince Albert coats and 1,300 men buried in sack coats during the year, while 136 women were buried in silk and 2,132 in woolen dresses.

In Munich the custom of hiring women who attend to washing and dressing the dead is in vogue. These women, the official attendants of the dead, have been ordered by the mayor to refuse their services wherever they are asked to put into the coffin a corpse clothed in anything but paper. These professional women are held responsible for the execution of the edict.

In order to facilitate matters it has been proposed to inaugurate a new activity on the part of the state. All the clothing worn by and left by a person deceased is to be turned over to the authorities, who will furnish a paper costume for the body. Thus no more of these precious textile materials are to be buried with the dead.