‘Jetzt geht’s dahi’
Dying, Death and Mourning.
In Lower Bavaria
and beyond.
‘Do not just pass by, why such haste? Pause for a moment. Think about me, about yourself and those you held dear. Where have they all gone? You move along, o traveler, and after you, comes yet another!’
Inscription on a traditional wooden memorial board
Bavarian Forest, 1926
Death is inevitable, and yet in our modern society it is all too often pushed aside. Hardly anyone dares to confront the finiteness of life, as if the unavoidable could be banished from existence. Precisely for this reason, the loss of someone close to us can strike all the harder and leave us feeling disoriented.
Our special exhibition aims to open up a space to pause and to turn our attention to dying, death, and mourning. It leads visitors through ancient rituals of popular belief, presents cultural-historical treasures from the museum’s collections, and shows how the end of life can be shaped with dignity. At the same time, it broadens perspectives through intercultural viewpoints, connects tradition with contemporary art and floral installations, highlights current developments, and raises questions.
The exhibition invites reflection and dialogue—and perhaps you will take a new impulse home with you: for those who keep death in sight learn how to live.
FROM LIFE TO DEATH
ARE THERE ANY SIGNS THAT INDICATE APPROACHING DEATH? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE? DO WE STEP OVER A THRESHOLD? DO WE DIE DIFFERENTLY TODAY THAN IN THE PAST?
Dying is the transition from life to death — a process which, in purely biological terms ends when a person’s heartbeat, breathing and all brain functions have ceased irreversibly and completely. For some, this happens gently, accompanied by family or in a hospice; for others it happens abruptly, through illness, accident or suicide. Still others die unnoticed because no one is at their side.
Until well into the 20th century, it was part of everyday life in Catholic households to call the priest to administer the last rites to the dying. Today, such religious rituals have become rare in our society. But they provide relief, just as much as the symbolic acts performed after the last breath: opening windows, stopping the clock, covering mirrors, remaining in silent contemplation and saying goodbye together.
At the end of a dying process, the post-mortem examination confirms the physical death — a formal act that marks the irreversible end of an individual’s life. Since 1760, post-mortem examinations have been mandatory and regulated by law in Bavaria.
Holy provisions for the final journey
When a person was close to death, it was customary in rural Lower Bavaria well into the 20th century to call for the local priest to administer the last rites. Accompanied by an altar boy or sacristan and equipped with an oil lamp and bell, the clergyman set off to offer the last rites to the dying person: confession, communion and anointing.
In catholic households, a set of last rites objects was a natural part of the house furnishings. The set included a crucifix, candles, holy water, anointing oil, a pyxis (a small metal vessel for the body of Christ) and a carefully embroidered linen cloth (the last rites cloth) which covered the table, forming a small altar.
Nowadays, last rites sets are available in a wide variety and can be ordered from online church supply stores. From time to time, a priest is still called to prepare the dying for their final journey.
Care at the close of life
End-of-life care — not to be confused with euthanasia — is the dignified support of a human life in its final stages. The focus is on support, comfort, connection and autonomy.
The hospice movement emerged in England in the 1960s. The founder of modern hospice work and Palliative Care is Dame Cicely Saunders — a doctor, nurse and social worker. Saunders was committed to pain-free, dignified dying with human closeness. In 1967, she opened the first modern hospice, St. Christopher’s Hospice in London. She is considered a pioneer of palliative medicine.
Today, the hospice movement is widespread worldwide. In 1999, the Bavarian Hospice Foundation (Bayerische Stiftung Hospiz) was established. The German Hospice and Palliative Care Association (Deutscher Hospiz- und PalliativVerband e.V. — DHPV) is the nationwide interest group representing the hospice movement. Around 100,000 people in Germany are involved in the field of hospice care.
“End-of-life care shows me time and again what happens when I really listen. When I’m not thinking about my answer or the next question. When I’m not judging or looking for a solution. Instead, I remain completely in the here and now — with my counterpart and their needs. There is great meaning to be found in this small space that opens up between two people. Even when words fail, you can still listen to a person and respect their needs. The rules of verbal communication still apply: you can also listen by observing! While I am accompanying someone, my ego gently recedes into the background. Just being there, in peaceful silence, offering a touch. These moments help me to introspect, leaving me quiet and open at the same time. When I look at my phone afterwards, the time shows ‘your day now has one hour less’. Yet, my feeling tells me quite clearly: I have gained time – and much more.”
Christine Schuller, Hospice carer
Lonely, unexpected, and unnoticed
In an ideal scenario, a person dies at an advanced age, pain-free and surrounded by family and friends. However, reality is often different: The ways in which people die are diverse and not always gentle. In addition to violent deaths caused by accidents, wars or epidemics illnesses also lead to the end of life. Suicide is a special case — when people end their own lives.
According to the cause of death statistics of the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), approximately 1.03 million people died in Germany in 2023. Of these, 348,312 died of cardiovascular diseases, 230,292 of cancer, and 72,502 of respiratory diseases. 10,300 people took their own life, 2,839 died in traffic accidents.
The painting ‘The End of the Retired Farmer’s Wife’ (‘Der Austräglerin Ende’) by Carl Johann Becker-Gundahl (1885) depicts a lonely death: apart from a dog, there is no one else there. Even today, people die unaccompanied or unnoticed.
In Freyung and Zwiesel, for example, five deceased persons were buried by the authorities in 2024, because they had no relatives, or the costs of the funeral could not be covered.
Maria Innocentia Hummel and her death caused by tuberculosis
by Franziska Oslmeier M.A. and Verena Pichler M.A. Collection managers
and academic research assistants at the Freilichtmuseum Massing.
Lower Bavarian artist Berta Hummel (Born May 21,1909) had already achieved nationwide fame during her lifetime, primarily with her children’s illustrations. With her entry into the Sießen convent, under the name of Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel OSF, she offered her art to the service of the sisterhood.
In 1940, the occupants of the Sießen convent were evicted, and the space repurposed as German repatriation camp. Up to 2,000 people lived there, in very cramped conditions. Infectious diseases and poor food supply were everyday problems.
In the summer of 1944, Sister M. Innocentia fell ill with severe tuberculosis. She was treated twice, in different pulmonary sanatoriums, which was a privilege not granted to everyone. She died on 6th of November 1946, aged only 37 years. She shared this fate with many others. From 1938 to 1949 the number of tuberculosis patients more than doubled — a side battlefield of the war.
“After my cardiac arrest last year, my life has been divided into two parts. Part of me has been left behind. It really feels as if everything since then has been a delicate encore to another life, which I listen to attentively and play with caution and devotion. The happiness and daily magic of being here today, seeing my children grow up and being able to participate fully in life, never leave me. Often, in the midst of everyday life, the thought strikes me: What if …? – and it moves me to tears when I think about all the moments I would not have experienced – and all those my loved ones would have experienced without me. In such moments, everything else immediately becomes unimportant. Yes, a certain lightness that previously characterised my life has been lost. It has been replaced by a heaviness – for better or for worse. My body sent me signals that I don‘t quite understand yet. Limits were set from the outside. I often think about things, not because I miss them, but because I shouldn‘t or am not allowed to do them. The physical experience of being close to death has put a lens of intensity on my life, a new perspective for which I am deeply grateful.”
SEBASTIAN CHICA VILLA, PIANIST
Post-Mortem Examination
Once the last breath is taken, the person’s death must be confirmed. In earlier times, when medical assistance was not a matter of course, a delicate feather was held under the deceased person’s nose, to check whether a slight breath caused it to vibrate.
The post-mortem examination, which certifies death with a death certificate, has been re-quired by law in Bavaria since 1760. It can be divided into an internal and external exami-nation, for which certain medical instruments are required. While the external post-mortem examination documents the location, time and characteristics such as skin changes and body temperature, the internal post-mortem examination (autopsy) involves opening the body.
Probably the most radical method of determining death in the past was to stab the heart with a cardiac knife. From the 18th century onwards, widespread hysteria about apparent death became greater than the fear of death itself.
Nowadays, §3 Section 1 of the Bavarian Funeral Regulations (Bayerische Bestattungsverordnung BayBestV) defines by binding law how a post-mortem examination is to be carried out in Bavaria.
DEATH IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS
ARE WE STILL HERE WHEN WE ARE DEAD? DOES THE SOUL LIVE ON? WHAT REMAINS — AND WHAT ARE THE ACTIONS THAT FOLLOW IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH?
Until a few decades ago, the following applied in rural Lower Bavaria: If a person died at home, their relatives would comb their hair, wash them, dress them, and lay them out with dignity.
Bavarian Forest expert and author Paul Friedl describes the ‘Aufbleiber-Nacht’ (‘The Vigil Night’) around 1900 in his Novel ‘Der große Sturm’ (‘The Great Storm’): ‘The first vigil keepers arrived, dipped their fingers in the holy water vessel and flicked the drops over the covered body. Gradually, the room filled up. Carpenter Murr arrived, together with his wife, he took a rope out of his trouser pocket and used it to measure the length of the covered body.
The daughters of the Lippl family came, as well as Reitdecker, and Mandl, and his coughing wife […] They sat down on the bench and quietly recounted the life of the deceased woodworker.’
Once a last glance had been taken and a last prayer was said, the procession set off: Out of the room, forming a funeral procession, through the village, to the cemetery.
Today’s funeral options range from a simple burial in a wooden coffin, to cremation with a custom-designed urn, to a burial at sea, in the forest, on a coral reef — or even in space in a microcapsule.
The final farewell
Until the second half of the 20th century, the funeral procession (in former times also called ‘Leichenzug’ which translates as ‘corpse procession’) accompanied the deceased to their final resting place. The procession consisted of the village community and the local clergy.
In the village of Fürholz, a body was taken to the cemetery in a small procession in a wooden hearse, whereas the deceased commercial counsellor and glass pioneer Isidor Gistl was carried through Frauenau in 1950 in a gigantic funeral procession. There was indeed a difference between the peasant funeral, and the funeral of a person of a higher standing. But
beyond the size of the procession, the symbolic meaning remained the same: the de-ceased was paid their last respects with the utmost amount of dignity and in collective mourning.
Accompanied by a brass band and local associations, the clergy lead the procession and walked in front of the coffin. Mourners dressed in black, including family, acquaintances and neighbours, marked the end of the procession.
Today, the mourners gather on the cemetery in a short procession and accompany the coffin or urn from the funeral hall to the gravesite.
“When my grandfather Luis was dying, I was still living in Berlin. I drove straight to the Bavarian Forest when I heard the news, and with the help of a very cooperative doctor, we brought him home from the hospital in Zwiesel to his living room. I lay down next to him on his deathbed and witnessed how the human machine slowly shuts down. It took about two days for him to pass away. From the moment he returned home from the hospital, friends, acquaintances and siblings came to say goodbye. They lingered, left, returned, looked into the room, stepped out again, stayed a little longer. This created a quiet, convivial farewell. After his death, my mother and a friend washed and dressed him, and he lay in his bed for a few more hours — until the undertakers came. I couldn’t have anticipated how healing this last time together would be.”
Lisa Späthe, Cultural sector worker
Laid out and photographed
Until mortuaries were built, the dead were laid out by their relatives in their home environment — in rural homes either in the central room of the farmhouse (‘Stube’) or in the ‘Fletz’, the typical large corridor of the traditional Bavarian farmhouse. In large parts of Lower Bavaria, the deceased were laid out on a bier board or corpse board. But a deceased person could also be laid in a bed or in a coffin.
The bed, coffin, or board was covered with an artistically embroidered burial cloth. An altar was set up right next to the deceased. Candles were burning and night vigil was held. Family, friends, acquaintances and neighbours took part in the event. The vigil period lasted 2 to 3 days, even in summer, due to the fear of apparent death. Today, it is permitted to keep a deceased person at home for up to 36 hours.
In the middle of the 19th century, photographing corpses became a fashion. Photographers advertised in newspapers for the production of corpse portraits ‘in the greatest likeness’. These portraits were often one of the few, sometimes even the only pictures of a person.
Earth or fire
Burial has been the most common form of funeral in Lower Bavaria for a long time. Simple wooden coffins were made by local carpenters — either custom-made or, as it is common today, in standardized sizes. It was not uncommon that a stockpile of coffins was stacked in the attic and used as containers for fruit or grain until they were used for their true purpose. Coffins for children were glazed in a soft white and decorated with silver coffin ornaments. Decorative applications were made of cardboard and came from the standardized product range of the embossing industry.
Germany’s first crematorium was opened in the city of Gotha in 1878. This led to the gradual spread of cremation throughout the country. During the 19th century the funeral industry emerged to a professional service sector. Instead of coffin carpenters or undertakers, we now see funeral service specialists or cremation technicians.
“We were a happy family of five until the accident happened on August 19th 2024. Now we are a family of five, but one of us is missing. Our son Ole was torn from our lives after an accident at work. He truly lived his life to the fullest and enjoyed most of it. Of course, it is infinitely sad and nothing can change that. But Ole gave me so much in life and beyond, and his loss has changed me greatly. I now live more consciously, with more appreciation for others, but above all for myself. I make far fewer compromises. That is Ole’s legacy, and I appreciate it very much. I read a statement written by another mother: ‘There is only one thing I can imagine that is worse than the death of my son. It would be even worse if I had never known him.’ That’s how it is. Despite my great sadness, I am so grateful for every moment I shared with Ole. He made my life and the lives of so many others so much richer.”
Kristina Böckenhoff, Paediatric Nurse
Child mortality
Until into the early 20th century, child mortality was very high in rural areas. Infants in their first months of life were particularly at risk. Infectious diseases, poor hygiene, a lack of medical care, as well as malnutrition and social poverty were the causes for the high mortality rate.
Infant lives were also not spared from tragic accidents. This can be illustrated using the example of the sons of Therese and Karl Brunner from Zwiesel: Their son Max, born in 1919, died of meningitis at the age of almost four. Their second son — also named Max — died at the Zwiesel cemetery on All Saints Day 1930. A gravestone that was improperly secured crushed the six-year-old at the grave.
According to UNICEF in 2023 approximately 4.8 million children worldwide died before their 5th birthday. That is about 13,000 children per day, 550 children per hour and nine children per minute. Stillborn children are not included in these figures. According to estimates of the United Nations around two million babies were stillborn in 2023.
HEARSE
Originally built as a ‘Landauer’ carriage, this hearse was made by the Munich-based company ‘J. M. Mayer, Royal Bavarian Master Saddler and Court Carriage Manufacturer’ and was originally owned by the so-called ‘Binterin’ from Fürholz. She worked in Bohemia for Prince Schwarzenberg and received the carriage there as a farewell gift. In Fürholz, it came into the possession of innkeeper Anton Althammer. At his behest, the carriage was converted into a hearse around 1930. Althammer’s son sold the hearse to a ‘holidaymaker’ from Nordhorn on the Dutch border. The carriage, which was bought back by Werner Krenner from Fürholz, was donated to the collection of the Finsterau Open-Air Museum and was extensively restored in the summer of 2025 by restorer Andrea Gmach from Cham.
Fürholz, late 19th Century
Inv. no. F 2025/101
Glass Pioneer Isidor Gistl:
His Last Journey
From 1906 onwards, Isidor Gistl (1868 — 1950), originally from Schweinhütt near Regen, leased the Poschinger Glass Factory in Frauenau and expanded the production. In 1925, he opened the Kristallglasfabrik I. Gistl Frauenau just a few meters away. It was built according to modern architectural principles, including a villa, a utility building with a function hall and several residential homes for the workers. With his visionary energy, he shaped the social and cultural life of the community, and he is honoured as glass pioneer and commercial counsellor. Gistl successfully ran his company, created jobs and promoted culture and community.
On March 25, 1950 he died unexpectedly after a movie theatre visit. At his funeral, his coffin was carried in a gigantic funeral procession from his villa, through the glass factory grounds, to the cemetery.
Mourning and Remembering
How long is it appropriate to mourn? Is there a ‘right’ way and a ‘wrong’ way to mourn?
What power lies in remembering? Can shared grief contribute to healing?
Grief manifests itself in a variety of forms and can cause a whole spectrum of emotions: Pain, anger, rage, guilt, helplessness, fear, relief, gratitude or love. The appropriate place to grieve may be different for each mourner: A mountain top, the garden, a particular café, a bench in the woods or the grave in the cemetery.
In Bavaria, the cemetery is not just a place of burial, but a reflection of local mourning culture. At the entrance you will find signs with rules of behaviour: Keeping silence, dignity, and order are to preserve respect for the deceased.
But grief is never just personal — it is always as well connected to costs and bureaucracy. Graves have always had to be paid for, funerals had to be organised, fees paid and documents to be filled out. Death not only demands emotions, but also administration.
Poor souls’ plates (‘Armeseelentaferl’) are a considered as evidence of popular piety in Lower Bavaria. In addition to the wooden memorial boards at the roadside, the culture of remembrance also includes small funeralcards that remain after the burial ceremony. They are featured with a photograph, biographical dates and prayers and are collected and preserved — as small portable places of remembrance.
“I first encountered grief as a child: I was not quite nine years old when my mother died. During this time, I realised how differently people deal with loss and that there are often unspoken expectations about how grief should be ‘properly’ expressed. My grandmother was confused, almost offended, that I didn’t put up a photo of my mother and that I rarely visited her grave. When my father died many years later, my approach was different. Even in the eulogy, it was said that ‘the void left behind does not have to be filled, but can and should remain as a memory of the person.’ This image continues to shape my view of the culture of remembrance to this day, especially when I visit his carefully and lovingly designed grave, which my adoptive mother tends like a small garden. Different forms of remembrance create spaces and offer rituals to find one’s own balance between preserving and letting go.”
Karola Booss, Designer
The ‘poor souls’ in purgatory
In Christian faith, purgatory is some kind of limbo, a purification place for those who have died in the grace of God but still have sins to atone for. At the roman-catholic Council of Florence, the doctrine of purgatory was defined as dogma in 1439.
This concept was adopted in the popular ‘poor souls’ belief. Whoever is in purgatory should be redeemed as quickly as possible. To accelerate the redemption process, the assistance of the living was ranging from a simple everyday “May God reward you for the poor souls”, to alms, invocations of the saints, to the Eucharistic sacrifice.
In the course of this, the Bavarian Forest saw the emergence of poor souls´ plates in folk art in the form of reverse paintings, in a compact format and with mostly similar image compositions. They found their way into rural households until the 1930s. They were mainly placed next to the door frame, with a holy water vessel underneath, so that the ‘poor souls in purgatory’ could be sprinkled with holy water several times a day.
From the bier board to memorials
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the funeral bier board, a flat wooden board that was used to carry the deceased, sometimes had a longer-term purpose in the Bavarian border forest regions: In snowy winters, when it was not possible to bring the deceased from the remote wilderness to the cemetery, the bier board with the dead body was laid out in the barn, the woodshed or under the roof, until the weather allowed for burial.
The funeral bier board (also ‘corpse board’ or ‘death board’) served as a practical resting place for the body. Since the introduction of coffin burial, it no longer accompanied the dead to the grave. The deceased was lifted from the board into the coffin and the board stayed at home. Some people only carved three crosses into the wooden board and leant it against a tree to fade, others gave it to a carpenter who decorated it with name, dates, sayings, and ornaments as a lasting memorial.
Today, death boards by the roadside are cultural objects of remembrance. The original purpose as a bier board has disappeared from our end-of-life culture, as well as the practice of laying out a dead person at home.
“I first came into contact with funerals when I was an altar boy. Death struck my family early and hard — at 16, I had to organise my brother’s funeral. These experiences shaped my faith and my empathy. Later, I managed a savings bank branch, where dealing with death and inheritance matters was part of my job. In 2017, a serious illness pushed me to my physical and emotional limits and taught me to talk openly about feelings and failure. In January 2022, my mother passed away. I entrusted the arrangements to Bestattungen Fuchs (Fuchs Funeral Services) in Zwiesel. I got talking to the young undertakers and offered to help out as a coffin bearer and funeral assistant if needed. The company didn‘t have its own funeral speaker. I thought: maybe I could do that too! And then the time came: my first experience as a funeral speaker. It seemed doable — and it worked.”
Stephanus Robl, Funeral assistant and funeral speaker
Dying, death and mourning around the world
Is it acceptable to mourn in a cheerful and colourful way? What messages or feelings are expressed through flowers? Where are the cultural similarities? Where are the differences?
Dying, death and mourning are universal experiences — and yet every culture has its own way of dealing with loss. In Lower Bavaria, we mostly encounter quiet, sombre mourning, but looking beyond our borders opens up new perspectives.
In Mexico, the Día de los Muertos honours the lives of the deceased in a vibrant and celebratory way. In Buddhist funerals, prayers, lights and offerings accompany the deceased into their next existence. In Kathmandu, the dancing skeletons of the ‘Citipati’ — lords of the cemeteries — remind us of transience, while in Hindu funerals, fire and water guide the soul to the afterlife. In Judaism, stones are placed on graves. And in Islam, the washing of the body plays an essential role.
These examples show that mourning can be quiet or loud, subdued or colourful, ritualistic or spontaneous. They open up space for us to reconsider our own ways of remembering.
“I do this work primarily as a service to my Creator. It is a great honour for me to be the last person to prepare a sister for her meeting with Allah. Each washing is a quiet moment full of humility, reminding me that our lives are fleeting and that we all stand before Allah with the same dignity. It is particularly moving when I am allowed to wash a baby; holding a little inhabitant of paradise in my arms fills me with awe and hope. In Islam, the deceased are treated with purity, respect and mercy. It is the last bath, the last clothing, the last act of dignity on the way to the hereafter. Every sister I accompany teaches me to let go of this world and prepare myself inwardly for the hereafter.”
Iman, Mortuary washer