,

German Classics

This is a selection of classic German books
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3.90 avg rating — 1,359,730 ratings
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3

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3.69 avg rating — 150,558 ratings
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4.13 avg rating — 208,929 ratings
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5

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4.04 avg rating — 535,820 ratings
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6

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3.94 avg rating — 380,690 ratings
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7

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4.23 avg rating — 219,706 ratings
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8

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4.08 avg rating — 854,384 ratings
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9

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4.10 avg rating — 508,887 ratings
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10

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4.20 avg rating — 34,518 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 171,281 ratings
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12

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4.27 avg rating — 162,374 ratings
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13

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4.22 avg rating — 70,623 ratings
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14

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3.79 avg rating — 227,663 ratings
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15

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3.41 avg rating — 12,641 ratings
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16

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3.82 avg rating — 8,753 ratings
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17

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4.14 avg rating — 131,170 ratings
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18

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3.27 avg rating — 15,936 ratings
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19

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4.13 avg rating — 57,346 ratings
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20

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3.89 avg rating — 41,737 ratings
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21

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3.69 avg rating — 17,944 ratings
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22

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4.18 avg rating — 217,298 ratings
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23

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4.10 avg rating — 41,581 ratings
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24

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3.95 avg rating — 46,182 ratings
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25

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3.56 avg rating — 26,573 ratings
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26

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3.67 avg rating — 36,503 ratings
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27

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3.93 avg rating — 9,732 ratings
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28

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2.96 avg rating — 25,549 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 — 18,992 ratings
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31

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3.68 avg rating — 30,565 ratings
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32

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3.84 avg rating — 10,967 ratings
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33

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3.62 avg rating — 22,360 ratings
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34

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4.07 avg rating — 5,714 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 — 13,559 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 92,901 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 — 18,409 ratings
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40

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3.76 avg rating — 20,211 ratings
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41

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3.88 avg rating — 14,227 ratings
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42

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3.16 avg rating — 5,283 ratings
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43

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3.38 avg rating — 9,552 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 — 16,959 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 — 3,651 ratings
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50

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3.82 avg rating — 14,136 ratings
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51

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3.06 avg rating — 12,769 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 — 16,121 ratings
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54

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3.30 avg rating — 1,614 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 — 2,636 ratings
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57

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4.19 avg rating — 7,233 ratings
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58

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3.88 avg rating — 24,133 ratings
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59

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3.46 avg rating — 10,197 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 — 9,008 ratings
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62

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2.92 avg rating — 14,397 ratings
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63

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3.69 avg rating — 13,342 ratings
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64

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3.73 avg rating — 21,599 ratings
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65

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3.69 avg rating — 65,922 ratings
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66

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3.93 avg rating — 31,394 ratings
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67

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4.21 avg rating — 5,474 ratings
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68

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3.85 avg rating — 13,602 ratings
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69

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4.03 avg rating — 110,516 ratings
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70

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3.90 avg rating — 10,596 ratings
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71

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3.66 avg rating — 13,112 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 — 9,087 ratings
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74

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3.98 avg rating — 11,709 ratings
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75

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3.31 avg rating — 6,608 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 — 8,719 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 — 518 ratings
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82

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3.17 avg rating — 8,436 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 — 2,566 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 — 34,415 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 — 20,657 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 — 72,953 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 — 5,799 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 — 2,614 ratings
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100

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4.24 avg rating — 16,235 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 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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