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This is a selection of classic German books
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4.26 avg rating — 181,787 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 529,477 ratings
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4.21 avg rating — 36,749 ratings
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4.07 avg rating — 180,196 ratings
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4.22 avg rating — 74,356 ratings
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14

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3.79 avg rating — 234,705 ratings
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3.41 avg rating — 13,300 ratings
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3.28 avg rating — 16,725 ratings
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3.82 avg rating — 9,068 ratings
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18

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4.13 avg rating — 63,655 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 139,449 ratings
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20

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3.89 avg rating — 44,682 ratings
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21

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3.70 avg rating — 18,948 ratings
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22

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3.95 avg rating — 47,136 ratings
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23

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4.18 avg rating — 224,178 ratings
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25

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3.56 avg rating — 28,880 ratings
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2.95 avg rating — 27,190 ratings
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27

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3.67 avg rating — 39,474 ratings
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28

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3.31 avg rating — 19,898 ratings
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29

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3.92 avg rating — 10,120 ratings
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30

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4.28 avg rating — 3,445 ratings
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31

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32

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33

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35

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3.21 avg rating — 9,329 ratings
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38

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3.66 avg rating — 19,219 ratings
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39

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40

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41

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42

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44

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3.38 avg rating — 10,026 ratings
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45

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46

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47

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48

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50

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51

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53

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55

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58

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3.74 avg rating — 9,244 ratings
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63

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65

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66

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67

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3.93 avg rating — 32,591 ratings
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68

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69

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4.03 avg rating — 116,918 ratings
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70

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71

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3.66 avg rating — 13,790 ratings
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71

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73

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74

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75

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76

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77

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3.91 avg rating — 77,680 ratings
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78

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4.15 avg rating — 9,512 ratings
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80

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81

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82

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83

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83

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3.17 avg rating — 8,916 ratings
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85

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3.89 avg rating — 401 ratings
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85

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87

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3.87 avg rating — 453 ratings
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88

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3.88 avg rating — 57 ratings
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89

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4.43 avg rating — 2,257 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 36,784 ratings
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91

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4.23 avg rating — 343 ratings
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92

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3.98 avg rating — 21,809 ratings
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93

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3.68 avg rating — 259 ratings
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94

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95

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3.67 avg rating — 141 ratings
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96

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3.51 avg rating — 2,211 ratings
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97

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98

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4.22 avg rating — 5,972 ratings
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99

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4.19 avg rating — 5,861 ratings
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100

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3.81 avg rating — 2,771 ratings
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227 books · 151 voters · list created May 24th, 2009 by Malika Schuessel (votes) .
151 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Malika 6 books
16 friends
Ricki 5268 books
1477 friends
Askina 68 books
1 friend
Steffi ~mereadingbooks~ 2851 books
351 friends
Erich 776 books
10 friends
Exentaser 873 books
66 friends
Sven 339 books
10 friends
Chanel 1180 books
169 friends

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Comments Showing 1-5 of 5 (5 new)

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message 1: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Dec 13, 2013 03:50AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) @Malika Schuessel
Classic 'German' books, means originally written in German, I assume? (Because there are other nationalities than German on this list as well).


message 2: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Dec 13, 2013 03:25AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) No matter how you look upon it, Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus is not a German classic and as such has been removed.


message 3: by Stefanie (new)

Stefanie Brune @ Booklovinglady
Some of these books were written before there was a "Germany" as we know it today. Borders have shifted many times in the last centuries, and for years during the middle ages and even later there only were numerous German-speaking principalities and city-states. Even the word "Deutschland" is derived from "Deutsch", the language, and not the other way round. German literature has always meant to include literature originally written in German, and is taught like that in German literature classes at German schools today, no matter if the authors lived in what today is Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Prague (f.i. Kafka) or formerly German speaking regions in Poland and the Czech Republic.


message 4: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited May 09, 2019 10:08AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Stefanie wrote: "@ Booklovinglady
German literature has always meant to include literature originally written in German ..."


I agree but that doesn't change the fact that Praise of folly does not belong on this list. It was originally written in Latin, not in German, and Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was not German. The part of the Netherlands were he was born (Rotterdam) during the end of the 15th century was not German. So whichever way you look upon it, the book shouldn't be on this list in my opinion (but do correct me if I'm wrong).

As to my earlier remark, I agree that books written in German do not necessarily have to be from the present day Germany. Of course they don't. Even today German is also spoken and writtten in other countries than Germany. But isn't that just what I said...?


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) I have my doubts about Priest Konrad's Song of Roland (#179) being on this list, as La Chanson de Roland was originally written in French. As the introduction says: "The Rolandslied is a Middle High German translation of the French Chanson de Roland, dating from around 1170".
So this work is is definitely a translation, no matter how old (or the book has been combined wrongly to editions of La Chanson de Roland).


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