Sources and method – Grief & Bereavement

These 15 topic pages are based primarily on statutes (gesetze-im-internet.de), the Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt) and the websites of the professional associations and advice organisations named. The "Sources" field of each topic page lists the specific references.

Why some statements are expressly marked as "state law" or "not uniform across Germany"

Unlike, for example, the Social Code, some of the topics on these pages are not regulated uniformly across Germany. This mainly concerns two areas: first, the duty and deadline to arrange a burial, which each of the 16 federal states regulates independently in its own burial act – a deadline from one federal state cannot be transferred to another. Second, paid leave from work after a death: there is no uniform statutory entitlement to several days; § 616 BGB is to be interpreted narrowly and can be waived, so the actual arrangement depends on the relevant collective agreement or employment contract. The pages state this explicitly instead of claiming a nationwide uniform figure that does not exist.

Sources

1. Gesetze im Internet (gesetze-im-internet.de), Federal Ministry of Justice and Federal Office of Justice, retrieved September 2026: consolidated versions of BGB (incl. §§ 1922, 1924, 1931, 1944, 1945, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1968, 2303, 616), PStG (§§ 28, 29, 30, 70), PStV (§ 31), SGB VI (§§ 46, 48, 67, 78a, 97, 99, 242a), SGB VII (§§ 63, 64), SGB XII (§§ 18, 74), SGB I (§§ 45), ErbStG (§§ 16, 30) and MuSchG (§§ 3, 17). Basis for all paragraphs cited in the text.
2. Drittes Gesetz zur Änderung personenstandsrechtlicher Vorschriften (Third Act Amending Civil Status Law) of 19 October 2022 (Bundesgesetzblatt). Basis for the version of § 28 PStG in force since 1 November 2022 (3-working-day deadline).
3. Mutterschutzanpassungsgesetz (Maternity Protection Adjustment Act), passed by the Bundestag on 30 January 2025, confirmed by the Bundesrat on 14 February 2025, in force since 1 June 2025. Basis for the staggered maternity protection periods after a miscarriage from the 13th week of pregnancy (§ 3 Abs. 5 MuSchG) and the extended protection against dismissal (§ 17 Abs. 2 MuSchG).
4. Gesetz zur Modernisierung der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (GMG) (Statutory Health Insurance Modernisation Act) of 14 November 2003. Basis for the fact that the statutory death grant (Sterbegeld) of the health insurance funds was abolished without replacement on 1 January 2004.
5. SGB XIV – Soziales Entschädigungsrecht (Social Compensation Law), in force since 1 January 2024, it replaced the Opferentschädigungsgesetz (OEG) and the Bundesversorgungsgesetz (BVG). Basis for the statements on benefits for relatives and survivors after a violent crime.
6. BGH, judgment of 12 July 2018, Az. III ZR 183/17 ("Facebook inheritance case"). Basis for the statements on digital estates and the transfer of user contracts to the heirs.
7. Bundesverband Trauerbegleitung e.V. (bundesverband-trauerbegleitung.de), retrieved September 2026. Basis for the statements on quality standards and the range of grief support services.
8. WHO, ICD-11, category "Prolonged Grief Disorder". Basis for the statements on the 6-month criterion and on distinguishing it from normal grief.
9. Specialised self-help and expert organisations: Deutscher Kinderhospizverein e.V., Bundesverband Kinderhospiz e.V., Bundesverband Verwaiste Eltern und trauernde Geschwister in Deutschland e.V. (VEID, veid.de), AGUS e.V. – Angehörige um Suizid (agus-selbsthilfe.de), ANUAS e.V. (anuas-selbsthilfe.de), Weißer Ring e.V. (weisser-ring.de), TelefonSeelsorge (telefonseelsorge.de), each retrieved September 2026. Basis for the phone numbers, forms of support and target groups of these organisations given.
10. Exemplary state burial acts (Bayerisches Bestattungsgesetz, Bestattungsgesetz Nordrhein-Westfalen) and a private comparative overview of burial deadlines in the federal states, retrieved September 2026 – used expressly only as examples, not as a statement valid across Germany (see section "Where statements are expressly marked as uncertain").
11. TVöD (Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst – collective agreement for the public sector), § 29 Abs. 1. Used as an example of a special-leave provision in a collective agreement in the event of a death, expressly not as a rule applying to all employment relationships.

Where statements are expressly marked as uncertain

For some statements, no direct official primary source with an exact value could be found or checked comprehensively during research. This applies in particular to:

• the exact burial deadlines of the individual federal states – the example values for Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia given on the page "Organising a funeral and costs" come from a secondary comparative overview, not from a full check of all 16 state burial acts in the original, and should be verified against the relevant state law in each individual case;
• whether and in what amount the state and federal allowance offices still provide a "death grant" (Sterbegeld) for civil servants – according to the information available, this is not regulated uniformly across Germany and was therefore described only in general terms, without a euro amount;
• whether and how many days of paid special leave employment contracts and collective agreements outside the public sector provide in the event of a death – no generalisable, reliable figure could be established; the pages therefore give only the TVöD example (2 working days) and expressly point out that this must not be generalised;
• the exact amount of the death grant from statutory accident insurance (§ 64 SGB VII) at any given time, as it changes every year with the so-called reference value (Bezugsgröße) and was therefore deliberately not stated in euros here;
• the exact legal character and scope of voluntary additional services offered by individual online providers on digital estates (e.g. "memorialised state", "legacy contact") – these can change at any time on the provider's side and are not a statutory benefit.

In all these cases, the relevant topic page names the uncertainty explicitly instead of presenting a figure or assessment as a secure, uniform legal position across Germany.

What this platform does – and what it does not

• Figures, deadlines, amounts and legal bases come from the sources named. Nothing was added that is not supported there. Where a statement could not be reliably verified, this is stated on the page in question instead of guessing.
• Provisions that differ under state law (in particular the burial acts of the 16 federal states) are marked as "state law" or "not uniform across Germany" instead of giving an invented, supposedly nationwide figure.
• These pages replace neither legal advice in an individual case nor psychotherapeutic or pastoral support. If grief is persistent and severely distressing, or in an acute crisis, please contact one of the services named on the page Advice and support services or, in an emergency, call 112 (ambulance) or 110 (police).
• Deadlines are sometimes short (e.g. the six-week deadline for disclaiming an inheritance) and keep running regardless of the personal grieving process. If in doubt, contact an advice centre, the probate court (Nachlassgericht), the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German Pension Insurance) or a lawyer straight away.