Federal working group memorial service
The Federal Association of Funeral Services (BATF) is a registered association of funeral orators in Germany.
history
The Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Mrauerfeier eV was founded in 1996 in Niedenstein as a working group of funeral orators in Germany. From this merger, the professional association for those practicing the profession of funeral orator (funeral orator, freelance speaker, speaker, funeral speaker, etc.) developed in Germany. Since 2001 funeral speakers from Austria and Switzerland have joined.
The BATF is based in Berlin and is the first nationwide association of funeral speakers in Germany. In 2006 the association had around 75 members and the profession consists of around five hundred people. During regular events, the funeral orators discuss with representatives of the funeral industry , the churches and other religious and ideological communities about the tasks and perspectives of their work in secular farewell to the deceased.
With the change in funeral culture, freelance funeral orators became a profession with social relevance in German-speaking countries. Your help is wanted in more than a quarter of all burials in Germany today . In big cities like Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg they hold 50 percent of all celebrations. In the new federal states, secular funeral services are the rule. Similar developments can be found in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The 75 active members accompany grieving people in conversations, funeral ceremonies and with funeral speeches as well as after-care after grief according to their different lifestyles. Independent of traditional church pastoral care , the speakers have their own contemporary offer of personally designed farewells. Mourners accompany mourners in times of personal need; in cooperation with the funeral industry .
While 40 years of the GDR explain their own mourning culture in the new federal states , “Western” mournful speakers were more likely in northern Germany and are now increasingly in demand in the south as well; meanwhile beyond the cities in the country, where ecclesiastical influence is also waning.
The speakers see historical roots of their tasks in Christianity and other religions, also in humanism , in the free thinker movement , in the socialist society of the GDR as well as in the social development towards greater "individualization". Elements of the New Age movement of the 1980s, the conscious handling of AIDS death and everyday dying, continued in the hospice movement and the current desire for an individual approach to life and death in general, can be seen in the professional accompaniment by speakers. Funeral speakers create a personally meaningful way of dealing with death, dying, mourning and parting.
The ten-year anniversary of the founding from October 20-22 , 2006 in the Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel was the second public event of the BATF as an association after the foundation ceremony in 1996 at the same location.
task
Germany's funeral orators organized themselves as BATF in 1996 because death, farewell and mourning, even beyond traditional religious forms, have long been consciously experienced as normal and worth considering life for people. More than 25 percent of all funeral services in Germany are secular, in the new federal states, including Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, a total of half of all farewells.
Mourners look for qualified and empathetic accompaniment, even to accept the change in life and to understand the consequences of death. Funeral orators offer their help to the bereaved for a fee. They are usually mediated by the funeral home or are personally known in their area. Your funeral design is a professional service . Professional psychological training and rhetorical and linguistic skills are seen as a prerequisite.