German Literature and Reading for the Secondary Student

POETRY

  • German-American poet, Norbert Krapf: "Today's strongest poetic voice in search of German heritage:".
  • Matthias Claudius' Abendlied with English rendering by Norbert Krapf
  • Poem we memorize every year: Allein von Hermann Hesse. Learn more about him.
  • Two Hesse Love Poems in German and English: Ohne Dich and Wie sind die Tage schwer.
  • Heinrich Heine's Du bist wie eine Blume in German and English. More Heine.
  • Try translating Heine's Du hast Diamanten und Perlen with the help of Babelfish.
  • About.com Poems with German and English versions plus German literature links
  • Einfache deutsche Gedichte. Edited by Kurt Otto Weise --Ernst Klett Verlag

    GENERAL LITERATURE LINKS

  • German.About.com's Reading Texts for Learners of German
  • Gutenberg Projekt - a large collection of German and world literature.
  • Brian Zahn's list of links to German Literature
  • German for Travellers' list of literature links
  • Rick Spuler's massive list of links to Books, Literature, Fairy Tales (Maerchen), Humor, Jokes, etc.
  • More German(ic) myths and fairy tales
  • CyberGerman's Literary History and Philosophy Links

    FAMOUS AUTHORS

  • Roughly speaking, Germany's Shakespeare was J.W. von Goethe: poet, dramatist, statesman, scientist, etc.!
  • Friedrich Schiller - contemporary of Goethe, one of Germany's greatest playwrights
  • Links to many authors
  • Religious literature can be found on my Religion in Germany site
  • Wolfram von Eschenbach and his Parzifal - medieval literature
  • The themes of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
  • Edgar Allen Poe had a German predecessor - E.T.A. Hoffmann, who wrote tales of Doppelgänger (your double), the Sandman, the Nutcracker, The Golden Pot, tales of magic worlds intruding into our daily life and much more.

    FAIRY TALES - MYTHS - LEGENDS

  • Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm - German and English texts, dictionary help. illustrated versions
  • The Brothers Grimm - excellent multimedia site by National Geographic
  • Learn German through Fairy Tales: much online vocab help, nice design. Try Rumpelstilzchen.
  • Large collection of Fairy tales in German alphabetized
  • Märchenkristall: Märchen - Deutungen - Sagen - Mythen - Fantasy - Science Fiction
  • Legenden und Sagen - German tales and legends: many links

    HUMOR - CARTOONS

  • Max und Moritz: mischievous cartoon characters by Wilhelm Busch. English and German
  • Thomas Nast: cartoonist and writer
  • Lizz Caplan's outstanding collection of German comic books and cartoons.

    MISC.

  • Karl May Museum and official Karl May website (German)- Germany's best-selling author of all time
  • Na ja, nicht genau mein Bier, aber was kann ich dafuer - Harry Potter's German Site
  • More links pertaining to youth literature can be found under Fun Stuff