Sue, I think think the time limits on graves are set locally. There is no uniform standard for all of Germany. Relatives have the option of renewing the grave for a given time period. We have renewed my grandmother's grave in Wismar (Mecklenburg) twice now. Once when it was in the DDR and just recently after the wall came down. To the best of my knowledge, embalming has never been done, but then I could be wrong. Klaus Dieter Cook, Houston, Texas ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sue Schafer" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 3:10 PM Subject: Re: [GERMAN-LIFE] graves in Germany > Hi, > I just joined this very informative list since I am just beginning a geneological search for Schaefer roots. 32 years ago I went to Witterschlick (a suburb of Bonn) with my family. We looked at graves there and didn't find a single relative. Now I know why! > > How long has Germany used this method of turning graves? When did embalming stop, were embalming methods ever used? > > Thanks! > Sue Schafer > (I just found out the original spelling two weeks ago.) > >