German Classics

This is a selection of classic German books
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3

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3.69 avg rating — 150,527 ratings
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3.94 avg rating — 380,626 ratings
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4.23 avg rating — 219,694 ratings
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8

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4.08 avg rating — 854,277 ratings
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9

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4.10 avg rating — 508,828 ratings
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10

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4.20 avg rating — 34,515 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 171,265 ratings
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12

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4.27 avg rating — 162,323 ratings
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13

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4.22 avg rating — 70,612 ratings
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14

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3.79 avg rating — 227,646 ratings
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15

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3.41 avg rating — 12,640 ratings
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16

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3.82 avg rating — 8,751 ratings
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17

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4.14 avg rating — 131,141 ratings
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18

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3.27 avg rating — 15,933 ratings
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19

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4.13 avg rating — 57,337 ratings
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20

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3.89 avg rating — 41,730 ratings
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21

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3.69 avg rating — 17,941 ratings
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22

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4.18 avg rating — 217,276 ratings
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23

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4.10 avg rating — 41,577 ratings
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24

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3.95 avg rating — 46,176 ratings
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25

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3.56 avg rating — 26,572 ratings
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26

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3.67 avg rating — 36,498 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 — 25,545 ratings
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29

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4.28 avg rating — 3,354 ratings
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30

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3.31 avg rating — 18,991 ratings
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31

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3.68 avg rating — 30,560 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 — 22,357 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 — 8,878 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 — 92,887 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 — 18,407 ratings
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40

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3.76 avg rating — 20,204 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 — 5,282 ratings
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43

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3.38 avg rating — 9,551 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 — 16,955 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 — 14,133 ratings
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51

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3.06 avg rating — 12,764 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 — 1,613 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 — 2,636 ratings
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57

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4.19 avg rating — 7,232 ratings
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58

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3.88 avg rating — 24,131 ratings
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59

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3.46 avg rating — 10,194 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 — 9,008 ratings
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62

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2.92 avg rating — 14,395 ratings
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63

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3.69 avg rating — 13,338 ratings
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64

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3.73 avg rating — 21,594 ratings
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65

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3.69 avg rating — 65,910 ratings
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66

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3.93 avg rating — 31,392 ratings
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67

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4.21 avg rating — 5,473 ratings
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68

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3.85 avg rating — 13,601 ratings
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69

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4.03 avg rating — 110,499 ratings
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70

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3.90 avg rating — 10,594 ratings
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71

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3.66 avg rating — 13,110 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 — 9,088 ratings
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74

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3.98 avg rating — 11,708 ratings
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75

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3.31 avg rating — 6,607 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 — 8,716 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 — 4,589 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 — 8,434 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 — 2,564 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 — 34,406 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 — 20,659 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 — 72,937 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 — 5,675 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 — 16,232 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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