Obituaries always do more than sum up the life of someone who has just died. They fulfil various functions ranging from canonisation to propaganda, and they do so in the service of a huge variety of different interests. They also act as a forum for subtle criticism of the deceased person in question. Accordingly, necrologies come in an immense variety of genres, especially in the period extending from the beginning of their dissemination in the print medium around 1525 and their establishment in the feuilletons of the Vormärz period. Obituaries for writers are especially interesting for their high degree of self-referentiality and their significance as historical testimonies of changing concepts of authorship.