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German Classics

This is a selection of classic German books
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3.90 avg rating — 1,360,367 ratings
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3

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3.69 avg rating — 150,592 ratings
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4.13 avg rating — 208,985 ratings
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5

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4.04 avg rating — 535,979 ratings
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6

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3.94 avg rating — 380,871 ratings
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7

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4.23 avg rating — 219,734 ratings
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8

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4.08 avg rating — 854,610 ratings
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9

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4.10 avg rating — 509,020 ratings
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10

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4.20 avg rating — 34,529 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 171,331 ratings
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12

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4.27 avg rating — 162,468 ratings
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13

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4.22 avg rating — 70,644 ratings
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14

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3.79 avg rating — 227,710 ratings
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15

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3.41 avg rating — 12,647 ratings
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16

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3.82 avg rating — 8,755 ratings
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17

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4.14 avg rating — 131,239 ratings
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18

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3.27 avg rating — 15,939 ratings
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19

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4.13 avg rating — 57,375 ratings
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20

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3.89 avg rating — 41,750 ratings
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21

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3.69 avg rating — 17,952 ratings
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22

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4.18 avg rating — 217,341 ratings
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23

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4.10 avg rating — 41,589 ratings
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24

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3.95 avg rating — 46,190 ratings
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25

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3.56 avg rating — 26,588 ratings
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26

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3.67 avg rating — 36,513 ratings
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27

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3.93 avg rating — 9,735 ratings
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28

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2.96 avg rating — 25,561 ratings
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29

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4.28 avg rating — 3,355 ratings
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30

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3.31 avg rating — 18,995 ratings
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31

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3.68 avg rating — 30,577 ratings
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32

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3.84 avg rating — 10,972 ratings
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33

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3.62 avg rating — 22,361 ratings
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34

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4.07 avg rating — 5,715 ratings
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35

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3.21 avg rating — 8,879 ratings
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36

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4.08 avg rating — 13,563 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 92,940 ratings
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38

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4.02 avg rating — 2,296 ratings
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39

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3.66 avg rating — 18,413 ratings
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40

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3.76 avg rating — 20,223 ratings
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41

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3.88 avg rating — 14,230 ratings
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42

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3.15 avg rating — 5,286 ratings
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43

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3.38 avg rating — 9,554 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 — 1,798 ratings
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47

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3.70 avg rating — 16,966 ratings
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48

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3.53 avg rating — 4,919 ratings
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49

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3.85 avg rating — 3,653 ratings
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50

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3.82 avg rating — 14,144 ratings
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51

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3.06 avg rating — 12,768 ratings
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52

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3.80 avg rating — 8,258 ratings
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53

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3.92 avg rating — 16,122 ratings
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54

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3.30 avg rating — 1,615 ratings
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55

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3.76 avg rating — 3,431 ratings
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56

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3.98 avg rating — 2,636 ratings
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57

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4.19 avg rating — 7,234 ratings
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58

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4.09 avg rating — 12,069 ratings
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59

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3.46 avg rating — 10,200 ratings
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60

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3.27 avg rating — 2,027 ratings
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61

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3.74 avg rating — 9,009 ratings
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62

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2.92 avg rating — 14,398 ratings
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63

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3.69 avg rating — 13,344 ratings
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64

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3.73 avg rating — 21,606 ratings
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65

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3.69 avg rating — 65,795 ratings
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66

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3.93 avg rating — 31,404 ratings
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67

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4.21 avg rating — 5,475 ratings
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68

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3.85 avg rating — 13,609 ratings
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69

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4.03 avg rating — 110,563 ratings
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70

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3.90 avg rating — 10,602 ratings
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71

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3.66 avg rating — 13,116 ratings
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71

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3.64 avg rating — 3,354 ratings
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73

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3.31 avg rating — 9,087 ratings
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74

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3.98 avg rating — 11,711 ratings
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75

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3.31 avg rating — 6,609 ratings
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76

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3.84 avg rating — 1,782 ratings
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77

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4.15 avg rating — 8,726 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 — 4,590 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 — 518 ratings
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82

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3.17 avg rating — 8,437 ratings
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84

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3.86 avg rating — 378 ratings
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84

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3.88 avg rating — 2,565 ratings
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86

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3.86 avg rating — 422 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 — 34,427 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 — 20,662 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 — 72,972 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 — 5,798 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 5,677 ratings
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99

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3.81 avg rating — 2,616 ratings
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100

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4.24 avg rating — 16,243 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 294 books
11 friends
Chanel 1140 books
169 friends

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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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