德国折扣葬礼需求量增加

2009年以来，德国国内对花费在1200欧元以下的折扣葬礼需求量明显增加。

"If you find it cheaper anywhere else, we'll pay you back the difference, plus 30 euros," reads the advert¹ -- not for the latest electrical device on special offer on the high street（大街） but for a funeral.

Germany, which bore discount supermarket giants Aldi and Lidl to the delight of bargain hunters, has seen a growing demand since 2009 for discount funerals, defined by the industry as costing under 1,200 euros ($1,700).

Just over a quarter of all German funerals are expected to be of the cut-price variety this year, according to burials' specialist website, Bestattungen.de, up from 16 percent two years ago and 20 percent in 2010.

"Some people find themselves obliged（要求，约束） by law to bury their father with whom they have not had any contact for 20 years," Hartmut Woite, head of the Berlin-based company Sargdiscount, or Coffindiscount, told AFP.

"They do not want to pay thousands of euros, that's understandable. Everything is done by phone, by fax, by mail," he said.

Most people opt² for a cut-price funeral because they are burying a distant relative; others choose it because of geographical³ distance and about 41 percent cite financial reasons, Bestattungen.de said.

A classic funeral in Germany costs on average 2,800 to 3,500 euros, or twice that if the plot and upkeep（维修费，保养） of the grave are included, according to the German undertakers' federation⁴.

But at Sargdiscount, they cost from 479 euros, although that is only for orders placed by phone and entails⁵ a cremation⁶（火化） in the Czech Republic with no ceremony and the ashes buried in a common grave.

"The only thing that bothers my customers is the name of my company," Woite said, adding that he believed he had introduced transparency into a sector⁷ that was "too secretive".

Naturally, the trend for discount funerals has its critics.

"It's not a question of transparency," Rolf Lichtner, spokesman for the German undertakers' federation, said.

"Less than 500 euros, that doesn't even cover the costs. Either there are hidden costs, or the body is treated without dignity," he added.

But Patrick Schneider, whose firm Aarau operates across the country and offers funerals in Berlin for 499 euros, hit back, saying: "Dignity has nothing to do with money."

His low prices are down to ordering coffins⁸ in the hundreds rather than by the dozen, as well as getting special prices at the crematorium for being a good customer, he said.

Dressed all in black and with a carefully groomed⁹ white beard, Schneider organises funerals-to-order for his wealthier customers at a plush（长毛绒） , antique-furnished countryside building.

By contrast, business for his 499-euro funerals is conducted at Aarau's spartan¹⁰ premises¹¹ in Berlin where the only splash of colour can be found in a catalogue of urns¹² laid on the table.

"The quest for the cheap, the easy, what can be thrown away, now doesn't exclude burials," Dagmar Haenel, an anthropologist¹³ at the University of Bonn, commented.

"At the same time we also have a rise in very individualised burials, sometimes very costly¹⁴" by rich and educated people, she said.

"When it comes to funerals, the struggle of the classes is gaining ground."