Reviewed by Carlos Vargas, Texas Licensed Funeral Director (TFSC #119648) ·
Houston holds the district, and there is a German office in Dallas
The Consulate General of Germany in Houston is at 1330 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 1850, and Germany’s own consulate finder gives its district as Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. That is the office that issues the travel document for a death in Dallas.
But the Texas Secretary of State’s entry for Germany adds something families can use. It lists an honorary consul of Germany in Dallas, at 5151 Belt Line Road, Suite 715, with a telephone number, and another in Austin. Most countries in these guides have nothing closer than Houston. Germany has a listed office inside Dallas itself. We give the offices and not the officers, here as in every one of these guides, and the honorary post is a point of contact rather than the issuing authority: the document itself comes from Houston.
The document has a name, and a price that is published
Germany does not leave you guessing what the travel document is called. It is the Leichenpass, the mortuary passport, and the German missions’ own page on deaths abroad states that it is issued by the locally competent German mission. The same page lists what the mission needs before it will issue one: a certified copy of the death certificate, the burial or transfer permit, a certificate that no infectious disease is present, the deceased’s passport or a certified copy of it, confirmation of the funeral home’s licence, and confirmation that the body has been embalmed and enclosed in a zinc coffin.
That zinc lining is the requirement that most often surprises a Dallas family, and it has to be arranged before the casket is closed rather than after. For ashes the equivalent document is the Urnenbescheinigung, and the list is shorter: confirmation of the cremation, and a confirmation from the funeral home here that the urn contains that particular person’s ashes. Both documents carry the same fee. We read it in the federal consular fee ordinance directly: item 4.1.1, Leichenpass or Urnenbescheinigung, 68,00 euro. Item 4.1.2, the consulate’s assistance with an actual transfer or a local burial, is billed by time spent rather than at a flat rate.
| Situation | What the mission requires |
|---|---|
| A casket | Embalming and enclosure in a zinc coffin, confirmed in writing |
| A casket | Death certificate, transfer permit, no-infectious-disease certificate |
| A casket | The deceased’s passport, and the funeral home’s licence |
| An urn | Confirmation of cremation, and that the urn holds that person’s ashes |
| Either | 68,00 euro, paid by money order |
A 1937 treaty binds Germany, and the United States is not in it
There is a reason the German consulate issues this document rather than a Texas authority. The mortuary passport comes from the International Agreement on the Transport of Corpses, signed at Berlin on February 10, 1937. We downloaded the German Foreign Office’s own status list for that agreement and read all twenty entries on it. Germany signed on the opening day, deposited its ratification on February 1, 1938, and has been bound since June 1, 1938. The list is current to June 20, 2023, and the United States appears nowhere on it.
So there is no treaty channel between the two countries here. The document is issued on the German side, under German law, by the mission in Houston. What Texas contributes is authentication, and that part is straightforward: the HCCH status table, read on September 21, 2026, shows Germany signing the Apostille Convention on October 5, 1961, ratifying on December 15, 1965 and entry into force on February 13, 1966. The Texas Secretary of State states that it issues a single universal apostille certificate accepted in every country.
German law says where the ashes have to end up
Families sometimes plan to carry an urn to Germany and keep it. German law generally does not allow that, under a rule known as Friedhofszwang, the cemetery requirement. Burial law in Germany is set by each Land rather than federally, so the exact wording depends on where the funeral is. Taking one state’s statute as a worked example, Brandenburg’s burial act provides at section 25 that after a cremation the urn is to be interred at a cemetery, in the ground, in an urn stele or urn wall, in an underground vault or in an above-ground grave structure, or scattered on a meadow set aside for the purpose, with exceptions requiring important grounds.
We quote Brandenburg because we were able to open its statute and read the section. Do not assume it word for word for Bavaria or Hamburg; ask the receiving funeral director which Land’s rules apply. The direction of travel is the point: an urn arriving from Dallas is heading for a cemetery, not a shelf, and a family that means to divide the ashes should say so early.
The airline will not deal with the family directly
One last practical obstacle, and it is a real one. Lufthansa Cargo’s funeral transport page states that direct booking by private individuals is generally not possible: it works with funeral service providers and specialised freight forwarders who know the requirements. It also states that coffins must meet international standards for hermetic sealing and inner lining, and that country-specific rules apply to urns as well. A family telephoning an airline to book the flight themselves will be turned back to a funeral director, which is why the funeral home arranges it.
There is also a registration question that outlives the journey. Where a German national dies abroad, the death may be entered in the German death register on application. The Berlin authority’s page on registering a death abroad states that Standesamt I in Berlin is the responsible registry office where neither the deceased nor the applicant ever had a residence in Germany; otherwise it is the registry office for the deceased’s last German address.
Questions families ask about a return to Germany
- What is a Leichenpass and who issues it?
- It is the mortuary passport for a casket, and the German missions’ own guidance states it is issued by the locally competent German mission, which for a Dallas death is the Consulate General in Houston. For ashes the equivalent is the Urnenbescheinigung.
- Is a zinc coffin really required?
- The German consular guidance lists confirmation that the body has been embalmed and enclosed in a zinc coffin among the documents needed for the Leichenpass, so it must be arranged before the casket is closed.
- Can we keep the ashes at home in Germany?
- Generally no. German burial law applies a cemetery requirement, and it is set by each Land. Brandenburg’s statute, which we read, directs an urn to a cemetery or a designated scattering meadow, with exceptions needing important grounds.
Sources checked and case confirmation
Sources checked September 21, 2026. The consular fee of 68,00 euro was read here directly from the federal fee ordinance at item 4.1.1, and the 1937 agreement’s status list was downloaded and read in full, all twenty parties, before saying that the United States is not among them. Berlin’s own burial statute could not be opened and is not quoted; Brandenburg’s is used instead and is labelled as an example, not as the rule for every Land. No consulate email address and no United States dollar equivalent of the fee could be confirmed on a primary page, so neither appears. No airline publishes a Dallas/Fort Worth specific policy that we could open. Contact Vargas–London with the Land in Germany and where your relative is now, without sending medical or identity documents through the inquiry form.
