MEISSEN, Germany (AP) – The coffins are piled three high in the gloomy memorial hall of the Meissen crematorium, stacked in empty offices and stored in corridors. Many are sealed with plastic packaging, others are referred to as ‘infection risk’, ‘urgent’ or simply ‘COVID’.
A resurgence of coronavirus deaths in this corner of East Germany has boosted business for Joerg Schaldach and his staff for crematorium managers, but no one is celebrating it.
“The situation is a bit tense for us at the moment,” Schaldach said when a van of another funeral director pulled up outside.
The crematorium would normally have 70 to 100 coffins on site at this time of year, when the flu season takes its toll on the elderly.
“It’s normal for more people to die in winter than in summer,” Schaldach said. “That’s always been the case.”
Now he has 300 corpses waiting to be cremated and every day dozens more are delivered to the modernist building on a hill overlooking Meissen, an ancient city better known for its fine porcelain and impressive Gothic castle.
On Monday, the province of Meissen again took the undesirable lead in Germany’s COVID-19 tables, with an infection rate three times the national average. The state of Saxony, where Meissen is, contains six of the ten worst-hit provinces in Germany.
Schaldach says the crematorium is doing its best to keep up with demand, firing the twin kilns every 45 minutes and managing 60 cremations a day.
“The ashes still end up in the right urn,” he said.
But while staff will normally try to make the deceased look good for family members to say their last goodbyes, the infection rules now mean that the coffins of COVID victims must remain throughout, making the whole process even more difficult for those involved.
“This is our case, we’ve seen death many, many times,” Schaldach said. ‘The problem we see is that the grieving family members need our help. And at the moment there is a greater need for words of comfort because they have given their deceased loved one to the ambulance and then they never see it again. ”
Some have linked Saxon’s high infection rate to wider anti-government sentiment in a state where more than a quarter voted for the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the last national election. His lawmakers have objected to the need to wear masks, restrictions on the gathering of people and the closure of shops. Some even denied the existence of a pandemic.
Other commentators noted the large number of elderly people in the state and its dependence on nursing home workers from the neighboring Czech Republic, where COVID-19 infections are even higher.
Officials in Meissen, including the head of the provincial administration, the local doctors’ association and the legislature representing the region in parliament, an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, did not all want to be questioned about the situation.
The governor of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, admitted in a recent interview with Freie Presse that he underestimated the impact of the pandemic in his state and paid too much attention to those who called on businesses and schools to open up. stay.
A video showing Kretschmer talking to protesters outside his home on Sunday at closing time ends with him walking away after one person wears a mask resembling the German Imperial War Flag, a symbol used by right-wing extremists word.
Schaldach, the crematorium manager, says most people in Saxony accept the rules. But he, too, read remarks about social trademarks about bodies accumulating in his crematorium as hoax news.
‘Those who believe in conspiracy theories can not be helped. We do not want to debate with them, “he told The Associated Press. “They have their beliefs and we have our knowledge.”
Down in Meissen, the streets are empty, without the usual tourists or even the hustle and bustle of locals.
Franziska Schlieter has a gourmet shop in the historic city center that is one of the few allowed in the middle of the closure. Her shop, run by five generations of her family, is maintained by a drop regular who buys lottery tickets and gift baskets.
“In the Bible, God sent people plagues when they did not behave,” Schlieter said. It was a mistake to facilitate the closure during Christmas. “Sometimes I have to think about it.”
On the paved square, Matthias Huth takes care of a lone vehicle outside his shuttered restaurant. He defends those who have questioned the government’s COVID-19 restrictions, but says skepticism should not justify denial.
“Conversations are starting to change,” Huth said as he served a dish of chopped blood sausage, sauerkraut and mash known locally as “Dead Grandma.” “Everyone wants it to be over.”
___
Kerstin Sopke contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak