This accessible and fresh account of German writing since 1750 is acase study of literature as a cultural and spiritual resource inmodern societies.Beginning with the emergence of German language literature on theinternational stage in the mid-eighteenth century, the book playsdown conventional labels and periodisation of German literaryhistory in favour of the explanatory force of internationalcultural impact. It explains, for instance, how specifically Germanand Austrian conditions shaped major contributions to Europeanliterary culture such as Romanticism and the 'languagescepticism' of the early twentieth century.From the First World War until reunification in 1990,Germany's defining experiences have been ones of catastrophe.The book provides a compelling overview of the different ways inwhich German literature responded to historical disaster. They are,first, Modernism (the 'Literature of Negation'),second, the literature of totalitarian regimes (Third Reich andGerman Democratic Republic), and third the various creativestrategies and evasions of the capitalist democratic multi-medialcultures of the Weimar and Federal Republics.The volume achieves a balance between textual analysis and culturaltheory that gives it value as an introductory reference source andas an original study and as such will be essential reading forstudents and scholars alike.