Deathbed
The last bed to which a seriously ill or decrepit person withdraws when his life comes to an end is called the death bed (or death bed).
meaning
The term deathbed is often used in a symbolic context and refers to the time immediately before death in which the dying person may still do or receive things that are important to him, such as inheritance matters or religious rituals . Some dying people take stock of failures or mistakes in the last phase of life. The deathbed offers relatives and friends one last opportunity to visit the dying person.
Legally, people can, insofar as they are mentally able to do so, regulate their estate up to the last moment before death (also within the framework of a so-called emergency will according to § 2250 BGB ).
Different rituals take place on the deathbed, depending on religious affiliation, such as the anointing of the sick and communion for catholic believers or the alignment of the dying person in the direction of Mecca for Muslims .
art
The deathbed is a frequently depicted motif in the visual arts of the Middle Ages and modern times, e.g. B. in the numerous depictions of the death of the Virgin , as a picture motif “ On the death bed ” by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch or the photographs and paintings of “ Bismarck on the death bed ”.
In the literature there are deathbed scenes described in detail (for example in Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks ), and this motif also plays a role in some films (such as Magnolia ) .
See also
Web links
- Deathbed . Krünitz: Economic Encyclopedia , Vol. 185, pp. 489f., Berlin 1844
Individual evidence
- ↑ Top Five Regrets Of The Dying. English, accessed March 20, 2012
- ↑ When a Muslim dies in a foreign country. On: www.magazin.trauer.de ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 19, 2012
