• Looks at the great German writers, from Luther, Goethe, Schiller, and Marx, to Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Gunter Grass
• Reveals the links between a nation and its literature: showing how to ask what German literature is like is to ask what Germany itself is like
• Examines the literary and philosophical responses of German writers to social, political, and economic change, and seeks out the links between Germany's intellectual traditions and its often violent and tragic history

German writers, from Luther and Goethe to Heine, Brecht, and Günter Grass, have had a profound influence on the modern world. This Very Short Introduction presents an engrossing tour of the course of German literature from the late Middle Ages to the present, focussing especially on the last 250 years. Emphasizing the economic and religious context of many masterpieces of German literature, it highlights how they can be interpreted as responses to social and political changes within an often violent and tragic history. The result is a new and clear perspective which illuminates the power of German literature and the German intellectual tradition, and its impact on the wider cultural world.