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 |
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:
- Goethe bytes For Goethe’s 250th birthday in 1999, Deutsche Welle put 250 short texts on the Web, one each day. Each “byte” includes the text, a spoken version of it (requires RealPlayer), and a brief commentary.
- Faust I
- Faust II
- Die Leiden des jungen Werther
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:
- The Kafka Project Mauro Nervi’s effort to make available on the Web editions of Kafka based on the original manuscripts. Includes the three novels, Der Verschollene, Der Proceß and Das Schloß, as well as most (all?) of the shorter pieces, diaries etc.
- Wunderbare Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande, Feldzüge, und lustige Abenteuer des Freiherrn von Münchhausen The “real” text of Baron Münchhausen’s lying tales.
- Till Eulenspiegel
- Karl May: Winnetou Adventure novel set in the “wild west” written around the turn of the century; used to be standard fare for German boys. Facsimile edition in the old “Fraktur” script.
- Kurt Tucholsky: Ich möchte Student sein A short text on the wish to have time at 30 or 40 to be a student again, when one really wants to learn what one could have learned then….
- Shakespeare auf Deutsch!
- Melville: Moby Dick Auf Deutsch!! Currently (8/03) inaccessible due to copyright issues, but check their Melville page in case this changes.
Philosophy
- Die Philosophie-Seiten von Dieter Köhler Great collection of primary and secondary resources.
- Online encyclopaedia of Literature, History and Philosophy Click on the platform you want and then search for the author your interested in. Includes the full text of some works. Impressive list of entries, but did not work on my Mac 6/4/99.
- PhilLex: Ein Lexikon der Philosophie
Nietzsche:
- Thus Spake Zarathustra/Also Sprach Zarathustra Complete Parallel English and German text of one of Nietzsche’s last and most influential works.
- Also sprach Zarathustra Here you can find the complete German text of this book, in case the above link breaks.
- Die fröhliche Wisenschaft (This is the source of the famous quotation “Gott ist tot” [spelled “todt” in this text])
- Die Geburt der Tragödie
Kant:
- Kritik der reinen Vernunft [=Critique of Pure Reason]–Text of the 2nd edition.
- Kritik der praktischen Vernunft [=Critique of Practical Reason]
- Kritik der Urteilskraft [=Critique of Judgment]
- Was ist Aufklärung? [=What is Enlightenment?] Famous text, only a few pages long–a good place to start reading Kant!
Marx:
- Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei A fun site: the text is displayed on a red background, and the “Socialist International” hymn plays in the background as you read the text.
- Kompletter Text der Marx-Engels Werke als pdf zum Download Searchable pdfs of the complete works of Marx & Engels. The prefatory remarks warn against the ideological bias in this edition (the complete edition from 1981), but point out that it continues to be widely cited and thus essential.
- Thesen über Feuerbach
- Schriften aus den Jahren 1842 bis 1844
- Kürzere Schriften aus den Jahren 1844 bis 1846
- Die deutsche Ideologie