The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Germany

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
25 The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann 1924 German German
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
57 The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky 1869 Russian Russian
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
90 Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 German German
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
96 Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 German German
135 Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann 1947 German German
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
163 Siddhartha Hermann Hesse 1922 German German
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
222 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
240 Death in Venice Thomas Mann 1912 German German
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
282 The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1774 German German
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
288 Independent People Halldor Laxness 1934 Icelandic Icelandic
312 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
315 Relativity Albert Einstein 1916 German German
322 Household Tales Brothers Grimm 1812 German German
324 Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels 1848 German German
328 Das Kapital Karl Marx 1867 German German
338 Effi Briest Theodor Fontane 1895 German German
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
440 The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt 1951 German English
458 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
482 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
517 Being and Time Martin Heidegger 1927 German German
531 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 1776 Scottish English
547 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
622 Elective Affinities Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1809 German German
627 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 1604 British English
642 Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain 1933 British English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
689 Anton Reiser Karl Philipp Moritz 1785 German German
699 The Nibelungenlied Unknown 1200 German Middle high german
716 Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler 1925 German German
721 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
724 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
761 Goodbye to Berlin Christopher Isherwood 1939 British English
766 Adolphe Benjamin Constant 1816 Swiss French
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
785 The Stechlin Theodor Fontane 1898 German German
831 Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers 1903 British English
832 The Last Of The Just André Schwarz-Bart 1959 French French
870 Economy and Society Max Weber 1922 German German
907 Hyperion Friedrich Holderlin 1797 German German
908 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
911 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber 1905 German German
918 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
920 The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum Heinrich Böll 1974 German German
923 The World Of Yesterday Stefan Zweig 1942 Austrian German
927 Cat and Mouse Günter Grass 1961 German German
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
960 The Gift Vladimir Nabokov 1938 Russian Russian
969 Storm of Steel Ernst Jünger 1920 German German
975 The Reader Bernhard Schlink 1995 German German
976 Rogue Male Geoffrey Household 1939 British English
1008 Professor Unrat Heinrich Mann 1905 German German
1023 Transit Anna Seghers 1944 German German
1028 Schindler's List Thomas Keneally 1982 Australian English
1032 The Epistle To The Romans Karl Barth 1919 Swiss German
1035 Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov 1897 Russian Russian
1040 The German Lesson Siegfried Lenz 1968 German German
1041 On War Carl Von Clausewitz 1832 German German
1061 The Case of Sergeant Grischa Arnold Zweig 1927 German German
1061 The Hothouse Wolfgang Koeppen 1953 German German
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
1104 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
1118 Germany, a Winter Tale Heinrich Heine 1844 German German
1132 Lenz Georg Buchner 1836 German German
1147 Dialectic Of Enlightenment Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer 1944 German German
1159 Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt 1963 German English
1184 Mr Norris Changes Trains Christopher Isherwood 1935 British English
1186 Tristan Gottfried von Strassburg 1210 German Middle high german
1187 Jean Christophe Romain Rolland 1904 French French
1199 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadeusz Borowski 1947 Polish Polish
1226 What Is To Be Done? Vladimir Il’ich Lenin 1902 Russian Russian
1237 Jacob the Liar Jurek Becker 1969 German German
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1278 So Long a Letter Mariama Bâ 1980 Senegalese French
1291 Parzival Wolfram Eschenbach 1200 German Middle high german
1295 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1303 The Seventh Cross Anna Seghers 1942 German German
1308 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 1897 French French
1336 Peter Schlemihl Adalbert von Chamisso 1814 German German
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
1339 The Artificial Silk Girl Irmgard Keun 1932 German German
1340 As You Like it William Shakespeare 1600 British English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1357 I and Thou Martin Buber 1923 Austrian German
1371 The Devil's Elixir E. T. A. Hoffmann 1815 German German
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1444 James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl 1961 British English
1447 Minima Moralia Theodor Adorno 1951 German German
1452 History And Class Consciousness Georg Lukacs 1923 German German
1465 Narcissus And Goldmund Hermann Hesse 1930 German German
1480 Divided Heaven Christa Wolf 1963 German German
1485 A Perfect Spy John le Carré 1986 British English
1499 Three Comrades Erich Maria Remarque 1936 German German
1515 The World as Will and Idea Arthur Schopenhauer 1818 German German
1516 Heinrich of Ofterdingen Novalis 1802 German German
1521 The Robbers Friedrich Schiller 1781 German German
1524 Greenmantle John Buchan 1916 British English
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1534 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German