Death and Society. Obituaries as Basis of an Empirical Investigation into the Relationship of Modern People to Death

Two questions were in the foreground of this study, the special question of the content and formal main focus of obituaries and their changes over a historical time period until the present-day and the general question of the analytical range of this type of source as data material for content analysis, in order to obtain statements about the development of behavior patterns in dealing with death and dying. Topics: date of publication, formal description such as size, symbolism, recitation, information on the deceased (sex, age, marital status, religious denomination, occupation, memberships), information on survivors, systematic recording of the obituary text in a conceptual framework.