Why German Literature?

German Literature

Course 1 · Chapter 1 · Why German Literature? Scope & Sources

Germany has long been called the "land of poets and thinkers" (Land der Dichter und Denker), a phrase that flatters a literature and also hides how late and how unevenly a German national literature came together. German was spoken across many states for centuries before there was one German country, and the writers of Weimar, Vienna, Prague and Berlin wrote for readers who did not share a capital. This first chapter sets out the scope of the course, how the language developed, how names and translations are handled, and which sources to use. Names and dates are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

A Literature Without a Single Capital

Many states, one language

Until the unification of 1871 the German-speaking lands were divided into dozens of kingdoms, duchies and free cities (check). A German literature existed as a shared tongue and a shared reading public long before it existed as a shared state.

Dialects and a standard

Spoken German varied widely by region. A written standard took shape over the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, helped by Luther's Bible and by the printing press (Chapter 3; check). Today's standard German is a product of that history.

Writers on the edges

Many major German-language writers lived outside Germany itself, among them Kafka in Prague and Musil in Vienna (check). The course keeps to the German story and names them where they are inseparable from it.

The "Land of Poets and Thinkers"

The phrase. It became popular in the nineteenth century and is often traced to the idea of Germany as a cultural nation before it was a political one (check the origin).
Weimar and Goethe. Around 1800 Goethe and Schiller made the small town of Weimar a literary centre (Chapter 5).
The Romantic turn. Romanticism gave German writing a lasting interest in folk tale, nature and the inner life (Chapter 6).
Modernism. The early twentieth century produced Kafka, Rilke and Thomas Mann (Chapter 8).
After catastrophe. The Nazi era, exile, division and reunification shaped what German writers could say and how they said it (Chapters 8 to 10). The phrase "land of poets and thinkers" has a hard edge after that history, and later writers wrote against it as well as from it.

Scope of the Course

Period (check)	Chapters	Examples
Medieval to Baroque	2, 3	The Nibelungenlied, Walther von der Vogelweide, Luther, Grimmelshausen
Enlightenment to Romanticism	4, 5, 6	Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Hoffmann, Heine, the Brothers Grimm
The nineteenth century	7	Büchner, Storm, Fontane, Nietzsche
Modernism and its aftermath	8, 9	Kafka, Rilke, Mann, Brecht, Celan, Grass, Christa Wolf
Contemporary	10	Sebald, Schlink, Herta Müller, Kehlmann, Erpenbeck

The course is Germany-centred. Austrian and Swiss writers appear mainly where they are inseparable from the story, and a full survey of German-language literature would be a separate course. It covers the major texts and the arguments about how they are read, not a complete list of authors.

Names, Titles and Translation

Two things to settle at the start Titles. The course gives German titles in italics with the usual English title beside them, for example Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther), and English titles often differ from the German (check each). Translations. Most readers will meet these authors in English, and translations vary in accuracy and age. Some classics have been translated many times, and older versions may read stiffly or take liberties. When the course quotes, it quotes briefly, names the translator where it can, and treats any quotation as the translator's version of the original (check availability and translators).

Myths to Test

Common claim	The question a careful reader asks (check each)
German literature is heavy and philosophical.	Which writers fit that picture, and which (Heine, Fontane, Kehlmann) are light, ironic or funny?
Goethe is the whole of German literature.	What did Goethe write, and what did his contemporaries and successors do differently?
Kafka is a German writer in the usual sense.	What does it mean that he wrote in German in Prague, and how is he claimed?
Nazi-era culture was a gap in German writing.	Who stayed, who left, who was silenced, and what was published? (Chapter 9)
East and West German literature were separate worlds.	What did writers share, and how did censorship and the market differ?
The Brothers Grimm simply wrote down folk tales.	How much did they collect, edit and rewrite? (Chapter 6; see also The Brothers Grimm & German Fairy Tales)

Sources to Use

The texts, in named translations, with a bilingual edition where possible so that readers with some German can compare.
Literary histories, which differ on emphasis and canon. Check which are available in English and how recent they are.
Archives and museums, such as the German Literature Archive in Marbach and the Goethe houses in Weimar and Frankfurt (check names and what is open).
Translators' prefaces and reviews, which show how a text was understood when it reached English.

A British comparison English literature also grew without one literary centre in its early centuries, and English writers have been claimed as national voices (Shakespeare, Dickens) in a way that parallels Goethe. The difference is that Britain had a political state around its language well before Germany did, so the German writers' cultural nation preceded their country in a way that has no close British equivalent.

Check the details Every name, date and attribution in this course comes from general knowledge and is marked "check" where it is uncertain. Literary histories are revised, so verify against current sources before quoting anything. The Nazi era and its aftermath are handled factually in later chapters, with attention to how culture was used and how Germany later confronted it.

Exercises

Exercise 1

List five German-language writers you already know of, and for each say one thing you believe about them, marking it as documented, claimed or unknown.

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Exercise 2

Choose one of the myths in the table and write a short plan for testing it: what evidence you would look for and where.

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Exercise 3

Explain why a literature can exist before the state that later claims it, using German literature as your example, and say what difference that makes to how the writers are read.

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Quick Reference

The idea: the "land of poets and thinkers", a cultural nation before a political one (check)
The language: dialects, then a standard shaped by Luther and print
The course: medieval to Baroque, Enlightenment to Romanticism, the nineteenth century, modernism and aftermath, contemporary
Scope: Germany-centred; Austrian and Swiss writers where unavoidable
The caution: most readers meet the texts in translation, which is itself an interpretation