They are like that. They have always loved nature and are proud of their woods to the point of wanting the green coolness of a forest to be their last home. In Germany the idea of being buried at the foot of a tree, with the ashes kept in a biodegradable urn, is not only popular, but has literally taken off. In the country there are 160 woods and parks where it is possible to be buried. A tree becomes one's own memorial stone and only a small plaque on the trunk says that a loved one rests among the roots. Not flowers, much less candles or tealights, none of those thousand signs that adorn our cemeteries on the contrary.
In reality, being buried in gardens and cemeteries full of flowers and shady trees has always marked the culture and North European Christianity. A visit to the "cemetery of the English" in Rome, overflowing with greenery, says it all. Our culture, and Foscolo teaches us, is a triumph of marbles and statues with sad faces, symbols of death. In a green forest, smelling of moss and bark, there is no room for all of this.
To say forest means to reveal an important part of the German soul: it is a symbol present in history, from Arminius, who annihilated the legions of Rome, to Romanticism, up to the present day, to the Greens and the defense of nature, and for some years to this part also to the burials. It is a strong bond that helps to understand the German universe. The Brothers Grimm, the famous authors of fairy tales, collected stories and legends of the forests of the North. The Teutoburg Wald, the Teotoburg forest in present-day Westphalia, where Little Red Riding Hood is lost and where the Pied Piper kidnaps children and where Hansel and Gretel are imprisoned by the old woman, is the same wood in which Quintilio Varo, a Roman leader of the time of Augustus, led his army to disaster: a defeat inflicted by the Cherusci Germans led by Arminius on the Roman troops, so burning as to convince Rome to give up those wild regions.
Without the German forest, even philosophy cannot be understood. Martin Heidegger, one of the major exponents of Existentialism, retired to write in a hut on the edge of the Black Forest, and his famous essay "Holzwege" is inspired by trees: the title, partially corrected in Italian is "Sentieri interrotti", literally refers to the paths opened by the lumberjacks. Then with Romanticism, an artistic and literary movement that has roots in Germany, man detaches himself from the Enlightenment reason to abandon himself to nature. In the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, one of the most famous exponents of European romantic art, there is recurring attention to landscapes, nature, and the purely romantic moods that spring from them. For Goethe - who was also a botanist - man, to reach his essence, must have a contemplative approach with nature as the only divine representation on earth.
It is therefore no coincidence that we talk a lot about Waldeinsamkeit, usually translated "solitude of the forest", a feeling also awakened by Covid which has done nothing but strengthen the "wandern" walking in the woods, and beyond. “Wandern” is also wandering in search of a quiet destination. It is therefore not difficult to understand how the large and small forests, scattered throughout Germany, can also be a sacred place for the last resting place. Even paying homage to a loved one is a different, profound experience, wrapped in the noisy silence of a wood.
Of course, the other side of so much spirituality is the Teutonic practical sense and the innate vocation to save. For example, in the Waldfriedhof Eickhof in Liebenau in Lower Saxony, once the park of a castle, up to 12 people, and not necessarily family members, can find tranquility in a tree. An organic urn is cheaper. There is obviously a price list for those who want to make an individual choice. The contracts are for twenty years. And then, as the slogan that promotes it says: "Trees are the most beautiful connection between earth and sky".
