Family-Owned Business
since 1878
Children and Babies
Sternenkinder - Angel Babies
In Germany, Sternenkinder are babies who have passed away before, during or shortly after birth. We arrange funerals for all Sternenkinder, so that even the very youngest can be given a dignified farewell and their parents can find comfort.
You can personalise a funeral for a star child however you wish. This might include, for example, painting the coffin in our workshop, taking hand or foot prints, or designing an urn. Most cemeteries or memorial woodlands offer special burial plots for babies, such as the shooting star tree in the FriedWald Weilrod or in Bad Soden. A new law in Hesse, passed in October 2025, explicitly mentions that parents of Sternenkinder or angel babies have the right to a funeral and burial for their child or children.
Death Certificates for Babies
German law distinguishes between three different scenarios, each of which is recorded differently: miscarriage, stillbirth and live birth. These different scenarios affect the benefits you can claim from, for example, your health insurance provider and your employer, such as maternity leave.
Pregnancy Loss
Miscarriage
If a child exhibits all of the following characteristics immediately after birth, it is classified as a stillbirth in a medical context:
no pulsating umbilical cord, no heartbeat, no spontaneous breathing, and a weight of less than 500 grams
Since 2013, the Personenstandsgesetz (Civil Registry Act) allows parents of stillborn babies to apply to the registry office (in German: Standesamt) for a ‘certificate of existence’ for their children. It is not an official certificate (in German: Urkunde), as it is voluntary, but it looks just as official with the federal eagle in the background and gives the stillborn child a place in the family documents.
Important for parents of such a child, particularly the mother, are the protection periods (in German: Schutzfristen) that apply to mothers following a miscarriage – a recognition that miscarriages often involve profound emotional and physical distress for the women affected. These periods are granted according to the stage of pregnancy (weeks of gestation) at the time of the pregnancy loss, you can find more information in this brochure.
Stillbirth
If a child exhibits all of the following characteristics immediately after birth, it is medically classified as a stillbirth:
A stillborn child is registered with a birth certificate stating that the child was stillborn.
Live birth
If a child exhibits any of the following characteristics immediately after birth, it is considered a live birth regardless of its birth weight: a pulsating umbilical cord, a heartbeat or spontaneous breathing.
The child will receive both a birth certificate and a death certificate.
More information and support for parents: