eight o'clock in the evening
`` To what place ? '' `` To the Deadhouse . '' Acting on the doctor 's information , the burgomaster issued his order . At eight o'clock in the evening , on the third of January , the remains of Mrs. Wagner were to be removed to the cemetery-building , outside the Friedberg Gate of Frankfort . Long before the present century , the dread of premature interment -- excited by traditions of persons accidentally buried alive -- was a widely-spread feeling among the people of Germany . In other cities besides Frankfort , the municipal authorities devised laws , the object of which was to make this frightful catastrophe impossible . In the early part of the present century , these laws were re-enacted and revised by the City of Frankfort .