Communal urn graves have been offered at every Rodgau cemetery for almost 12 years. The establishment of these communal burial grounds has expanded the range of burial options at Rodgau's cemeteries, thus fulfilling the wish of many citizens for a dignified burial site without the need for care and maintenance. Stadtwerke Rodgau takes over the complete care of the grave, as in many cases this can no longer be guaranteed by the relatives and surviving dependants. In the spring of last year, a further communal urn burial ground was completed at the new Nieder-Roden cemetery for the burial of care-free urns. The facility has a very modern and friendly design and is located in the south-eastern area, near the cemetery wall, and consists of curved beds surrounded by a slightly raised natural stone band on which the cast bronze inscriptions can be placed. Thanks to the wide variety of designs, the plaques can be customised. The installation provides for a continuation of the previous visual design motif from the first three construction phases. In the grave bed, in front of the hedge bordering the neighbouring grave field, seating stones have been integrated to allow people to linger. The ends of the central bed were created as areas for placing grave decorations. The perennial planting was supplemented by grasses with a beautiful autumn and winter aspect and spring bloomers such as daffodils, tulips and crocuses. In conjunction with the realisation of the expansion of the communal urn burial ground, a memorial sculpture was designed and erected within the communal urn burial ground by artist Friedhelm Meinaß from Rodgau. The "Book of Life" sculpture provides a fitting setting and artistically enhances the site. The memorial sculpture is placed between the ornamental shrubs, framed by low evergreen ground cover planting. This framing planting is intended for the urn burials of single and multi-layered, maintenance-free urn graves. The artist thematises the memorial sculpture "Book of Life" with the quote from Jean Paul: "The death of a person is an open book that we are allowed to read". The sculpture is 2.20 m tall and consists of sawn and painted aluminium panels on a welded aluminium base.
