Grabmal-Ted – the exhibition

Co-Production With Aeternitas e. V., Königswinter    

We live FINALly!

Will mourning work be done on the PC in the future? Will gravestones soon be selected and ordered in home shopping? Does the tumultuous gravestone market demand new distribution channels and more modern forms? The result of the first market survey on the Internet shows surprising results.

Aeternitas, the consumer initiative, and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal (AFD) as initiators present the results of the Tomb-Ted in the Museum for Sepulchral Culture. Visitors to the virtual exhibition on the Internet have selected their favorites from 60 possibilities, the first ten can be seen for a summer on the museum terrace high above Kassel.

At first glance, it is noticeable that the favorites do not correspond to the image we know from the usual stonemasonry stores and cemeteries. Potential gravestone buyers seem to have different ideas than our cemetery statutes allow, wishes that the gravestone shops on the corner still do not respond to. The vote of the Tomb-Ted is a resounding slap in the face for the gravestone industry, which is characterized by mercantile trade structures, the majority of which offers what is delivered ready to use by shipping container from India and other third world countries.

The industry complains about a decay of the gravestone culture and is blind to the wishes of the population. It is almost impossible for potential buyers to find a gravestone artist who is willing and able to realize their individual wishes. The new relay of www.grabmal-ted.de, which is activated at the beginning of April, therefore provides the new 60 gravestones standing for selection for the first time including a link to the respective supplier. A storm of indignation from the gravestone industry is to be expected because the well-worn and comfortable structures of a local market dominance are being questioned and the cemeteries are called upon to adapt their grave design guidelines to current trends.