As a result of the development of intensive-care medicine and organ transplantation, an increasing number of neurologists and other physicians are being confronted with problems of cerebral death and relevant diagnostics. Subsequent to a survey of the, after all, rather uniform pathogenesis, and of the anatomic findings, the clinical syndrome is described in detail with the object of helping to avoid a diagnostic misinterpretation of individual neurologic findings. The diagnostic aids or methods which can be applied at present, are judged with regard to the problems involved and their diagnostic value (experiences with the computer-tomogram have been omitted, since too few observations have been made to date). The paper concludes with a few pointers as to how these guidelines can be utilized when dealing with the concrete everyday situation of diagnosing cerebral death.