Literatur & Philosophie

Literatur & Philosophie

University of Michigan Library Guide for German Click on the “Full Text” tab to see online texts available for users with a UofM login (e.g. complete or selected works of Goethe, Kafka, Brecht, Kant, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and an extensive collection of German lyric poetry)
General Literary Sites Collections of texts

Poetry

Individual authors and texts

Philosophy

General Literary Sites

  • Germanistik im Internet Comprehensive resource page compiled by the Universität Erlangen with links to info on all aspects of “Germanistik” (the study of German Literature).
  • http://www.xlibris.de Click on “Autoren” to see biographies of classical authors and plot summaries of some of their works, or browse the site for other resources.
  • Autorenlinks der Universitätsbibliothek der FU Berlin For almost any German-speaking author you can think of, you can find here a link to one or more webpages devoted to that author with info on the author and/or links to online texts, biographical information, reviews of the author’s work etc.  A great starting point for web research on any given author.
  • Projekt Klassikerwortschatz A comprehensive resource page compiled by the Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, including an extensive
    link list, access to various online texts (“Volltexte”), etc.
  • Inhaltsangabe.info Website created by a (currently, i.e. 1/2012) 19-year-old German student devoted to plot summaries and occasional brief interpretations of literary texts. Also branches out into other fields, such as Math, English, Biology. Recommended by the German Federal Ministry of Education. Scroll down the page to see the list of texts summarized so far.
  • inhaltsangabe.de Another webpage with plot summaries of important German and English literary works. Challenging to read, but very informative.

Collections of texts

  • Projekt Gutenberg The largest collection of German literature on the Internet. Texts are organized for reading online with longer works divided into chapters. There is no provision for searching complete works or the Gutenberg database. The collection is now located within the
    Der Spiegel site, which means dealing with frames and problems with the search function, but you can get around these.  To see a text without
    the frame, click on “Druckversion” [=print version]. If you’re having trouble with the site’s search function, try going to Google, selecting “Advanced Search,” and then specifying gutenberg.spiegel.de as the domain–but this doesn’t always work. Note that you can see a complete listing by author by clicking on “Autoren A-Z” at the bottom of the page.
  • LitLinks–Helmut Schulze’s Compendium of Online German Texts Tremendous and well-organized collection.  In particular, this site includes links to many more recent texts not found e.g. on the Projekt Gutenberg Site. The site was moved in 2008, resulting in some broken links – but you can still use the info here to see what’s available, and then search for it on Projekt Gutenberg or elsewhere.
  • Berliner Zimmer: Literatur im Netz Another excellent site. Click on “Autoren” to see a listing of links for individual authors, or follow the wealth of other links to literary sites online.
  • Universität Heidelberg Here you can find a selection of texts digitalized by the Universität Heidelberg, as well as a link to a wonderful annotated list of digitalized texts worldwide: click on “Digitalisierte Literatur weltweit” near the bottom of the page.
  • Lexikus.de Very promising collection of public domain texts organized thematically. Many texts are still in the process of being digitized; click here and scroll down the page to see an explanation of the icons used on the site.
  • Freiburger Anthologie Currently (1/2012) includes roughly 1500 poems from 1720-1900.
  • 19th century German Stories Wonderfully done multimedia editions from Virginia Commonwealth University. Includes Struwwelpeter, Max und Moritz, and a selection of the Grimm fairy tales, as well as a great selection of other texts.  For most texts you can find a “story menu” that allows you to read a dual-language version, or to read the text side-by-side with a convenient dictionary window.
  • Litgloss(University of Buffalo) Collection of extensively glossed texts in various languages.  Currently (2001) only a few German texts (4 by the Grimm Brothers, two by Kafka, one by Kant), but plans for many more.
  • literatur.primär Contemporary Austrian prose and poetry. Click on “literatur.primär” or “bü.cher” at the top.
  • DadaOnline Small collection of dada texts in German or English
  • Vorleser.net Marvelous site where you can download free mp3 files of various (mostly literary) texts being read aloud in very clear German. Clicking on the audio icon gives you just an excerpt of the text ==> click on the disk icon to download the entire text. You can also click on the document icon to see the written version of the text in a separate browser window. To find a specific text, click on “Autoren.” A good
    starting point might be the Grimm fairy tales, which you can get to via the site’s home page.
  • Leselupe.de A site that allows contemporary authors to publish their work, and offers numerous resources (mostly free), including audiobooks, e-books, reviews, discussion forums, etc.

Poetry

Online Magazines Devoted to Poetry

  • Dulzinea Includes opportunities to submit your own poetry in German for contests (“Ausschreibungen”) or in an online forum with numerous participants; reviews; and a list of related links.

Poetry Collections

  • Die deutsche Gedichtebibliothek Awesome site. Provides a comprehensive collection of German poems, and in many cases biographies of the poets and other info.
    • If you like Charles Bukowski (who was of German descent), you can find some poems here that he wrote in German.
  • Lyrikline Search poems [Gedichte] or poets [AutorInnen] by language. Listen to the author read the poem while you follow along in the text.
  • Gedichte Projekt Gutenberg’s collection of German poems
  • The Poetry of Relationships Great site from Ohio University, collecting various poems together with readings of them, classical or modern musical versions, background info etc.
  • Pommerenings Gedichtauswahl Large collection, good for Heine and 20th century poems
  • Freiburger Anthologie Currently (12/2003) includes roughly 600 poems from 1720-1900.

Individual Poets

  • Morgenstern: Galgenlieder Fun poems!
  • Paul Celan: Here you can listen to Celan reading a selection of his own poems (including “Todesfuge”), and see the texts; here you can listen to him reading a somewhat overlapping selection of poems while looking at English translations of the texts.
  • Rilke
  • Heine

Individual authors and texts

Goethe:

Grimm Brothers :

  • Märchen – Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm Wonderful site with a large collection of Grimm fairy tales, organized alphabetically, and including, after each tale, a link to tales with similar motifs. If you explore the site, you’ll actually find there a collection of fairy tales and fables from the entire world!

Others:

Philosophy

Nietzsche:

Kant:

Marx:

Others: