River burials in Rhineland-Palatinate: dozens conducted, but demand far below expectations

Rhineland-Palatinate broke new ground in German funeral law when it allowed the ashes of the deceased to be committed to rivers in water-soluble urns, starting in September 2025. A review of the first three quarters of the practice shows that the new option has found a small but steady audience, though far from the surge some had anticipated.

Early uptake and first permits

Sebastian Trüb, co-owner of Rheinbestattung Mainz, was the first funeral director to receive a permit. His company has since acted as a service platform for other funeral homes in the state. "We have already carried out several dozen river burials," Trüb told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Cases came from Mainz and the surrounding area, the Worms region, Kaiserslautern, Landau, and northern Rhineland-Palatinate.

We have already carried out several dozen river burials.

Who chooses the river

Trüb says most of the deceased had a personal connection to water, the Rhine, or shipping. "We have buried people who themselves worked as captains on the Rhine, steering container and tank ships," he said. Others were drawn by the symbolism of returning to the eternal cycle of life, with the river carrying the remains to the sea.

They like the idea of returning to this eternal cycle.

Regulatory patchwork: north vs south

River burials require prior approval from the regional authorities. In the north, the Struktur- und Genehmigungsdirektion (SGD) Nord in Koblenz has authorised 31 burials: 15 for the Moselle, 15 for the Rhine, one for the Lahn, and none so far for the Saar. Each burial must be individually permitted. The SGD Nord spokeswoman said there had been no great rush of applications at any point.

In the south, the SGD Süd covers the Rhine stretch between Maxau near Karlsruhe and Kaub (Rhein-Lahn-Kreis). It has granted four permits, with one more pending and one rejected because the applicant was not a funeral director. Unlike the north, the southern authority issues collective permits and only learns the actual number of burials once a year; it assumes all authorised burials have taken or will take place.

A niche, not a mainstream option

Ulrike Grandjean, deputy chair of the Rhineland-Palatinate funeral directors' association, confirms that the new burial form has not caught on as widely as some initially expected. "At first it was the new, the interesting, the great thing — and in the end, concretely, it isn't so much," she said. Grandjean herself has not received a single concrete enquiry for a river burial, only a single funeral provision directive that mentions it.

At first it was the new, the interesting, the great thing — and in the end, concretely, it isn't so much.

Both Trüb and Grandjean agree that river burials will remain a niche. Early practical hurdles, such as finding urns that comply with the requirement that they dissolve rapidly after being lowered from a boat, have since been resolved.