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Liebestod (German, “Love’s Death”) is the title of a song from the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner.

As a literary term liebestod (from German Liebe, love and tod, death) it refers to the literary theme of erotic death or love death meaning the two lovers’ consummation of their love in death or after death.

Two-sided examples include Tristan und Isolde, Romeo and Juliet and to some degree Wuthering Heights, one-sided examples Porphyria’s Lover and The Sorrows of Young Werther.

The joint suicide of Heinrich von Kleist and lover Henriette Vogel is often associated with the liebestod theme.