Reading path
The German Mind
A tradition that thinks harder and deeper than almost any other. From towering ambition through catastrophe, guilt, and the long work of rebuilding meaning from rubble, German literature confronts difficulty head-on and refuses to look away. Rigorous, honest, and unafraid of darkness, this path traces one of the most intellectually demanding literary traditions in the world.
In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.
The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.
The route
- 1. The Sorrows of Young WertherJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774
- 2. FaustJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832
- 3. The World as Will and RepresentationArthur Schopenhauer, 1818
- 4. The Birth of TragedyFriedrich Nietzsche, 1872
- 5. The Gay ScienceFriedrich Nietzsche, 1882
- 6. Thus Spoke ZarathustraFriedrich Nietzsche, 1883
- 7. BuddenbrooksThomas Mann, 1901
- 8. Death in VeniceThomas Mann, 1912
- 9. The MetamorphosisFranz Kafka, 1915
- 10. The TrialFranz Kafka, 1925
- 11. The CastleFranz Kafka, 1926
- 12. SiddharthaHermann Hesse, 1922
- 13. SteppenwolfHermann Hesse, 1927
- 14. The Magic MountainThomas Mann, 1924
- 15. Letters to a Young PoetRainer Maria Rilke, 1929
- 16. All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria Remarque, 1929
- 17. Berlin AlexanderplatzAlfred Döblin, 1929
- 18. Death FuguePaul Celan, 1948
- 19. The Tin DrumGünter Grass, 1959
- 20. WoodcuttersThomas Bernhard, 1984
- 21. The Rings of SaturnW.G. Sebald, 1995
- 22. Effi BriestTheodor Fontane, 1895
- 23. Anton ReiserKarl Philipp Moritz, 1785
- 24. AusterlitzW.G. Sebald, 2001
- 25. Joseph and His BrothersThomas Mann, 1933
- 26. Doctor FaustusThomas Mann, 1947
- 27. Auto Da FéElias Canetti, 1935
- 28. Elective AffinitiesJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1809
- 29. AnniversariesUwe Johnson, 1970
- 30. I'm Not StillerMax Frisch, 1954
- 31. The Confusions of Young TörlessRobert Musil, 1906
- 32. The Duino ElegiesRainer Maria Rilke, 1923
- 33. The Notebooks of Malte Laurids BriggeRainer Maria Rilke, 1910
- 34. Civilization and Its DiscontentsSigmund Freud, 1930
- 35. The Radetzky MarchJoseph Roth, 1932
- 36. The Road Into The OpenArthur Schnitzler, 1908
- 37. The World As I See ItAlbert Einstein, 1930
- 38. Venus in FursLeopold Von Sacher-Masoch, 1870
- 39. Green HenryGottfried Keller, 1855
- 40. The VisitFriedrich Dürrenmatt, 1956