DW Documentaries
Death and grief - The stories of a companion for the dying
2023 E9 Jun 24, 2023 26m
Johanna Klug, 27, works as a companion for the dying. Dealing with death has had a positive influence on her life. The film accompanies her as she moves between her work and her everyday life as a fun-loving young adult in Berlin.
Johanna Klug is in the middle of her doctoral thesis on "Patient autonomy in terminally ill children" and has just published her second non-fiction book. At the age of 20, she began spending time with people in the final months of their lives. "Since then, the topics of dying, death and mourning have never left me," says Johanna. "It was the need for direct, sincere and genuine encounters with people." She finds this intensity in her hospice work, where she spends time with, among others, an old woman and a young woman with a heart condition. She also finds it during outings with a girl who is mourning her deceased sister, as well as when she goes out partying with her friends.
Johanna Klug is in the middle of her doctoral thesis on "Patient autonomy in terminally ill children" and has just published her second non-fiction book. At the age of 20, she began spending time with people in the final months of their lives. "Since then, the topics of dying, death and mourning have never left me," says Johanna. "It was the need for direct, sincere and genuine encounters with people." She finds this intensity in her hospice work, where she spends time with, among others, an old woman and a young woman with a heart condition. She also finds it during outings with a girl who is mourning her deceased sister, as well as when she goes out partying with her friends.
Where to Watch Death and grief - The stories of a companion for the dying