,

German Classics

This is a selection of classic German books
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3.69 avg rating — 150,485 ratings
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4.13 avg rating — 208,845 ratings
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3.94 avg rating — 380,507 ratings
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4.23 avg rating — 219,675 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 854,114 ratings
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9

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4.10 avg rating — 508,731 ratings
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4.20 avg rating — 34,501 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 171,214 ratings
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4.27 avg rating — 162,235 ratings
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13

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4.22 avg rating — 70,583 ratings
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14

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3.79 avg rating — 227,621 ratings
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15

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3.41 avg rating — 12,634 ratings
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16

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3.82 avg rating — 8,747 ratings
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17

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4.14 avg rating — 131,100 ratings
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18

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3.27 avg rating — 15,929 ratings
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19

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4.13 avg rating — 57,323 ratings
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20

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3.89 avg rating — 41,719 ratings
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21

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3.69 avg rating — 17,936 ratings
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22

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4.18 avg rating — 217,237 ratings
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23

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4.10 avg rating — 41,573 ratings
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24

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3.95 avg rating — 46,170 ratings
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25

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3.56 avg rating — 26,561 ratings
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26

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3.67 avg rating — 36,483 ratings
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27

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3.93 avg rating — 9,731 ratings
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28

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2.96 avg rating — 25,532 ratings
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29

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4.28 avg rating — 3,353 ratings
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30

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3.31 avg rating — 18,989 ratings
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31

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3.68 avg rating — 30,555 ratings
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32

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3.84 avg rating — 10,966 ratings
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33

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3.62 avg rating — 22,355 ratings
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34

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4.07 avg rating — 5,713 ratings
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35

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3.21 avg rating — 8,873 ratings
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36

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4.08 avg rating — 13,555 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 92,867 ratings
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38

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4.03 avg rating — 2,293 ratings
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39

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3.66 avg rating — 18,404 ratings
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40

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3.76 avg rating — 20,200 ratings
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41

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3.88 avg rating — 14,222 ratings
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42

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3.16 avg rating — 5,278 ratings
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43

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3.38 avg rating — 9,546 ratings
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44

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3.86 avg rating — 353 ratings
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45

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3.72 avg rating — 2,736 ratings
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46

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3.35 avg rating — 1,797 ratings
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47

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3.70 avg rating — 16,947 ratings
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48

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3.53 avg rating — 4,918 ratings
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49

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3.85 avg rating — 3,649 ratings
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50

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3.82 avg rating — 14,130 ratings
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51

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3.06 avg rating — 12,761 ratings
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52

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3.80 avg rating — 8,257 ratings
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53

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3.92 avg rating — 16,120 ratings
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54

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3.30 avg rating — 1,613 ratings
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55

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3.76 avg rating — 3,428 ratings
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56

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3.98 avg rating — 2,633 ratings
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57

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4.19 avg rating — 7,231 ratings
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58

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3.88 avg rating — 24,128 ratings
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59

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3.46 avg rating — 10,189 ratings
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60

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3.27 avg rating — 2,026 ratings
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61

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3.74 avg rating — 9,007 ratings
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62

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2.92 avg rating — 14,391 ratings
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63

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3.69 avg rating — 13,331 ratings
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64

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3.73 avg rating — 21,584 ratings
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65

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3.69 avg rating — 65,885 ratings
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66

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3.93 avg rating — 31,389 ratings
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67

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4.21 avg rating — 5,471 ratings
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68

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3.85 avg rating — 13,596 ratings
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69

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4.03 avg rating — 110,467 ratings
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70

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3.90 avg rating — 10,591 ratings
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71

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3.66 avg rating — 13,105 ratings
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71

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3.64 avg rating — 3,353 ratings
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73

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3.31 avg rating — 9,084 ratings
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74

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3.98 avg rating — 11,705 ratings
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75

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3.31 avg rating — 6,606 ratings
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76

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3.84 avg rating — 1,781 ratings
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77

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4.15 avg rating — 8,707 ratings
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78

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3.80 avg rating — 924 ratings
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79

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3.72 avg rating — 447 ratings
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80

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3.48 avg rating — 4,588 ratings
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81

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4.35 avg rating — 75 ratings
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82

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3.79 avg rating — 517 ratings
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82

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3.17 avg rating — 8,432 ratings
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84

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3.86 avg rating — 377 ratings
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84

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3.88 avg rating — 2,562 ratings
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86

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3.86 avg rating — 421 ratings
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87

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3.91 avg rating — 54 ratings
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88

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4.44 avg rating — 2,160 ratings
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88

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4.12 avg rating — 34,389 ratings
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90

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4.24 avg rating — 339 ratings
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91

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3.98 avg rating — 20,654 ratings
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92

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3.70 avg rating — 238 ratings
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93

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4.07 avg rating — 44 ratings
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94

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3.92 avg rating — 72,906 ratings
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95

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3.66 avg rating — 137 ratings
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96

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4.26 avg rating — 9,235 ratings
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97

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4.21 avg rating — 5,796 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 5,674 ratings
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99

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3.81 avg rating — 2,613 ratings
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100

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4.24 avg rating — 16,214 ratings
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208 books · 147 voters · list created May 24th, 2009 by Malika Schuessel (votes) .
150 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Malika 6 books
16 friends
Ricki 5171 books
1478 friends
Askina 68 books
1 friend
Steffi ~mereadingbooks~ 2844 books
347 friends
Erich 788 books
10 friends
Exentaser 873 books
66 friends
Sven 293 books
11 friends
Chanel 1142 books
169 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-6 of 6 (6 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Dec 13, 2013 03:50AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) @Malika Schuessel
Classic 'German' books, means originally written in German, I assume? (Because there are other nationalities than German on this list as well).


message 2: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Dec 13, 2013 03:25AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) No matter how you look upon it, Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus is not a German classic and as such has been removed.


message 3: by Stefanie (new)

Stefanie Brune @ Booklovinglady
Some of these books were written before there was a "Germany" as we know it today. Borders have shifted many times in the last centuries, and for years during the middle ages and even later there only were numerous German-speaking principalities and city-states. Even the word "Deutschland" is derived from "Deutsch", the language, and not the other way round. German literature has always meant to include literature originally written in German, and is taught like that in German literature classes at German schools today, no matter if the authors lived in what today is Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Prague (f.i. Kafka) or formerly German speaking regions in Poland and the Czech Republic.


message 4: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited May 09, 2019 10:08AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Stefanie wrote: "@ Booklovinglady
German literature has always meant to include literature originally written in German ..."


I agree but that doesn't change the fact that Praise of folly does not belong on this list. It was originally written in Latin, not in German, and Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was not German. The part of the Netherlands were he was born (Rotterdam) during the end of the 15th century was not German. So whichever way you look upon it, the book shouldn't be on this list in my opinion (but do correct me if I'm wrong).

As to my earlier remark, I agree that books written in German do not necessarily have to be from the present day Germany. Of course they don't. Even today German is also spoken and writtten in other countries than Germany. But isn't that just what I said...?


message 5: by Lisi23 (new)

Lisi23 Booklovinglady wrote: "@Malika Schuessel
Classic 'German' books, means originally written in German, I assume? (Because there are other nationalities than German on this list as well)."

Thank you! There's a difference between Germans, Austrians and Swiss. You can say "Classics written in the German language" or something like that.


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) I have my doubts about Priest Konrad's Song of Roland (#179) being on this list, as La Chanson de Roland was originally written in French. As the introduction says: "The Rolandslied is a Middle High German translation of the French Chanson de Roland, dating from around 1170".
So this work is is definitely a translation, no matter how old (or the book has been combined wrongly to editions of La Chanson de Roland).


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