German literature: Quick Facts

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's love affairs inspired his work

An exploration of Theodor Storm's The Dykemaster

Two black-and-white portraits of a mustached man flank handwritten notes; overlay text reads “Who was Friedrich Nietzsche?”

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Old High German literature Poetic Realism Old Saxon literature Middle High German literature Büchner Prize Etzel German language literature Western literature English literature French literature African literature American literature Arabic literature Italian literature Spanish literature Japanese literature Latin American literature Chinese literature

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Key People

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Rolf Hochhuth

German writer

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Konrad Kujau

German author

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Wilhelm Carl Grimm

German author, folklorist, and philologist

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Heinrich Harrer

explorer and writer

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Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm

German author, folklorist, and philologist

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Ludwig Meidner

German artist and writer

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher

Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke

Austrian-German poet

Friedrich Schiller, painting by Anton Graff, c. 1785.

Friedrich Schiller

German writer

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

German-language writer

German dramatist and critic Gotthold Lessing

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

German author

Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann

German author

Oskar Kokoschka

Oskar Kokoschka

Austrian painter and writer

Portrait of German poet Heinrich Heine, circa 1827, seated with one arm resting on his knee and wearing a dark coat over a white shirt.

Heinrich Heine

German author

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

German dramatist

Friedrich Hölderlin

Friedrich Hölderlin

German poet

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Franz Grillparzer

Austrian dramatist

Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann

German writer

Heinrich von Kleist, drawing by Wilhelmina von Zenge, 1801; in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

Heinrich von Kleist

German author

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines