delit1-1, Exercise 1: What you already believe

Model answer (one possible set; check each):

1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: wrote Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther. Documented (see Chapters 4 and 5).
2. Franz Kafka: wrote in German in Prague and asked for his manuscripts to be burned. Documented in outline: his friend Max Brod did not carry out the request, and the details need checking (see Chapter 8).
3. Thomas Mann: a Nobel Prize winner who left Germany under the Nazis. Documented (the prize in 1929, exile; check both, see Chapters 8 and 9).
4. The Brothers Grimm: collected fairy tales. Documented, but how much they changed the tales is debated (see Chapter 6).
5. Gunter Grass: wrote The Tin Drum and won the Nobel Prize. Documented (check the dates; see Chapter 9).

The point is to see which beliefs rest on records and which on repetition.