Obituaries are notices of death that are published about recently deceased persons.[1] The term comes from the Latin obit, meaning death. Obituaries in Germany can be rich with information for people who have lived there and helpful for genealogy research. Typically obituaries can be found through libraries and archives, and occasionally they are available through online databases.
Before searching for an obituary, you want to verify the death date of the person of interest. MyHeritage has the following collections for death records in Germany:
- Germany Death and Burials, 1582-1958 on MyHeritage
- 3.5 million records
- Germany, Hesse, Deaths on MyHeritage
- 8.4 million records
- Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, Deaths 1874-1938 on MyHeritage
- 20.7 million records
Keep in mind that the German Empire was only founded in 1871. Prior to that time, you will need to investigate the state or territory of interest for records such as obituaries, death notices, or funeral notices.
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Information contained in an obituary in Germany
Modern-day obituaries in Germany often include a portrait photograph of the deceased individual, date of birth, date of death, place of residence, and surviving family members such as spouse, children, or siblings.
Older obituaries are more limited in the information they contain. The name and date of death is typically listed, sometimes with the individual's age, place of death, and other biographical info. They can be found in German newspapers and other publications.
An early form of the obituary in Germany is funeral sermons and memorials, which were published in some German states as early as the 1500s. They were popular in the 1600s and 1700s. They often contained the name of the deceased, dates, places, names of relatives, and biographical history. German archives, libraries and universities are places to check for these kinds of records.
How to find obituaries in Germany
There are some online databases that are worth exploring for obituaries in Germany.
- FamilienAnzeigen.org: This is one of the most valuable sites to find German obituaries dating back to at least the 1960s. Search for a surname (Nachname) and you will see a list of individuals under "Sterbeanzeigen". The death date (Sterbedatum) is provided. If you click "Details", you'll see the name of the newspaper (Zeitung) and which archive has a copy of the newspaper (Zeitungsarchiv), which can be used to locate the obituary. You can either contact the archive or visit it to get a copy the original record.
- Trauer.de: Trauer means mouring or grief, and this is another website that indexes obituaries from the last few decades. It aggregates from various sources, and it links to them to view the original obituary.
- Deutsches Zeitungsportal: This initiative from the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library) aims to digitized as many German newspapers as possible. Its contents include scans of historical newspapers, including obituaries and death notices. Most records are available for the early 1900s or late 1800s, though there are some limited scans available for the 1700s and even 1600s.
- TraueranzeigeOnline.de: Traueranzeige is the German word for obituary or death notice, and this is a resource that specializes in recent death notices throughout Germany.
- Wiki.Genealogy.net: This is a good resource to search for a specific town or place to see what records may be available, including any relevant newspapers or publications that may have obituaries. It can be a good jumping off point to locating obituaries of interest.
If you are looking for a surname and a specific town or location, try searching with Google or another search engine with the following format: "[surname] + [place] + sterbeanzeigen". This will lead to death notices that are published by websites online and may be viewable immediately. This approach is particularly effective for less common surnames.
For older obituaries or death notices, back to the 1800s or earlier, it's best to find copies of the historical newspapers and searching those. Most rural areas in Germany do not have newspapers that published obituaries at that time, but this may be effective for urban areas. For rural areas before civil registration began in the 1800s, church records in Germany are likely to be the best resource to locate records of death.
Explore more about Germany obituaries
- Germany - Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries record collection at MyHeritage
- Deutsches Zeitungsportal (German Newspaper Portal) by Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
- Using German Newspapers When You Don't Know Much German by St. Louis County Library
- Decoding an old German-language Obituary by Janis' Genealogy