In the event of a death, a doctor must be informed immediately by a person with an obligation under burial law (in particular relatives, legal guardians and carers, insofar as the care of the person of the deceased was part of their duties during their lifetime, in hospitals the doctor in charge, in care homes their management), who must carry out the post-mortem examination. The doctor issues a death certificate, which must be forwarded immediately to the registry office by the person who arranged the post-mortem examination.

If the deceased is to be cremated, a second post-mortem examination is also carried out at the crematorium before cremation. This serves to re-examine the findings of the doctor at the first post-mortem examination before possible traces of criminal acts are irretrievably destroyed by the cremation.

Every corpse must be buried, either by burial in a grave (burial) or by cremation in a cremation facility and burial of the ashes sealed in a solid urn in a grave (cremation) or by cremation in a cremation facility and burial of the urn from a ship on the high seas (burial at sea).

As a rule, burial is possible at the earliest 48 hours after death. Furthermore, burial or cremation must take place no later than eight days after the death has been confirmed, not including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The urn containing the ashes must be buried no later than three months after the cremation. Under certain conditions, the municipality may permit an earlier or later burial upon request.

As a rule, the bodies and ashes of deceased persons must be buried in cemeteries (compulsory cemetery burial). In exceptional cases, permission for burial outside a cemetery may be requested from the district administrative authority in whose area the intended burial site is located.

The prerequisite for the granting of permission for burial outside a cemetery is that the applicant can cite an important reason, the burial site meets the requirements of burial law, the maintenance of the burial site during the resting period is ensured and the overriding interests of third parties do not conflict with this. The existence of exceptional circumstances is required for an important reason to be assumed.

For permission for burial outside a cemetery, a written or electronic application must be submitted to the competent district administrative authority.