9 of the best German books to read

There is nothing like losing yourself in a great story. Reading classic fiction is a superb way to understand more about the history, language and culture of any country, and luckily for us, some of the greatest storytellers are Germans.

If dipping into Goethe or Mann still seems daunting in German, consider tracking down a simultaneous translation copy for German learners or reading the classics in English before tackling the original German.

Must-read German books

The following eight books are all considered part of the German canon - a collection of works considered particularly influential in a certain culture. But make no mistake, these stories aren't old and dry; there's a reason they are classics!

1. Der Tod in Venedig, Thomas Mann

Der Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice) by Thomas Mann tells the story of an established writer, Gustav von Aschenbach, who visits Venice in search of a spiritual fulfilment that instead leads to his erotic doom. He meets a Polish tourist, Tadzio, and immediately feels liberated. What originally starts as a pique of interest becomes an overwhelming obsession with the young Polish boy, ultimately leading to a dark end.

Thomas Mann was a famous German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist and essayist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. His work is influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, explaining the deep psychological and philosophical tone of his writings.

2. Tintenherz, Cornelia Funke

Tintenherz (Inkheart) by Cornelia Funke is a renowned young adult fantasy novel that follows the story of Meggie and her father, who read aloud from a book called Inkheart and enable an evil ruler to escape the bounds of the fictional book and land in their living room. Meggie must learn how to harness spell-bounding knowledge of magic and find a way to return the evil ruler to the novel. The timeless tale of a young girl's love of books and her wild imagination is a sure page-turner for any young adult.

Cornelia Funke is an award-winning German fantasy writer, illustrator and storyteller, and she has become Germany’s best-selling author for children. Her stories have been translated into over 30 languages, and Inkheart, The Thief Lord and Dragon Rider have become successful film adaptations.

3. Im Westen Nichts Neues, Erich Maria Remarque

Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque describes the extreme physical stress and mental toll of German soldiers during World War I, along with the difficulty of returning to everyday life. Paul Bäumer enthusiastically enlists with his classmates for the war after hearing patriotic speeches from his teachers, but instead gets wrapped up in the horrors and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

Erich Maria Remarque is one of the most well-known and widely read German authors of the 20th century. His writing is heavily influenced by the history of his own life, including World War I, the Weimar Republic and then exile in Switzerland and the United States. His work has a sombre but realistic tone on people's lives during these periods.

4. Das Leiden des jungen Werthers, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Das Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is one of the most famous novels of the Sturm und Drang period in German literature, and would go on to influence a plethora of literature during the Romantic period. Werther is a passionate yet unhappy young man who is hopelessly in love with his friend’s wife, Charlotte. His friend is a man whom he greatly admires yet detests. Werther’s constantly contradictory emotions are displayed in a series of letters.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer whose works spanned the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism and science. His works influenced the movements of Romanticism, the Enlightenment, Sentimentalism, Sturm und Drang and even Evolution. Later in life, he turned his talents towards painting and the field of optics.

5. Der Prozess, Franz Kafka

Der Prozess (The Trial) by Franz Kafka is one of Kafka’s best works and tells the story of Josef K., who is arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority. The fascinating aspect of this novel is that the nature of his crime is not revealed to him nor to the author, and he must defend himself. The book was never entirely finished and is often read as an existential tale, a parable, or a comment on authoritarianism.

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking, Prague-born author and one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. Most of his writing is considered to be among the most influential in western literature. So recognisable is Kafka's style that the eponym “Kafkaesque” was coined to describe a story or real-life scenario that is characteristic of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Kafka's work, often related to illogical webs of bureaucracy.

6. Der Vorleser, Bernhard Schlink

Der Vorleser (The Reader) by Bernhard Schlink explores how postwar generations approach those who enabled the Holocaust. The story follows 15-year-old Michael Berg, who gets to know Hanna, a woman twice his age. She eventually becomes his lover and then inexplicably disappears. The next time he sees her, Michael is a law student, and she is put on trial for a horrendous crime, and she refuses to defend her innocence.

Bernhard Schlink is a German judge at the constitutional court of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and he is also a professor of law at Humboldt University in Berlin. His most famous works of literature consist of Der Vorleser and Olga. Der Vorleser was the first German book to reach the number one position on the New York Times bestseller list.

7. The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse

The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse is a futuristic novel set in a fictional province of Europe called Castalia, where technology and economic life are restricted to a minimum. It is home to a group of intellectuals with two purposes: to run boarding schools or to play the glass bead game. The nature and rules of the game are elusive and complex, and playing the game takes years of studying music, mathematics and cultural history, as it is an abstract synthesis of arts and sciences. The novel helps readers create deep connections with these seemingly unrelated topics through the understanding of the game.

Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946, and his works contemplate the topics of spirituality, authenticity, self-actualisation, philosophy and more. Hesse's works were banned in Nazi Germany.

8. Die Blechtrommel, Günter Grass

Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) by Günter Grass sees Oskar Matzerath narrate his years in a psychiatric hospital between 1952 and 1954. He recounts his extraordinary life packed with violent events such as the death of his parents, the nightmares of the Nazi era and the anarchic adventures of postwar Germany - but in a unique fashion, as the main character decides not to age past three years old.

Günter Grass was a Nobel Prize-winning German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor. His writing style is termed “broadened reality”, which consists of European magical realism with famous works including The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse and Dog Years. 

9. Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin

Berlin Alexanderplatz is a novel by Alfred Döblin about a murderer, Franz Biberkopf, who has just been released from prison. Struggling with life after prison, he begins to rely on a sex worker for help, a woman his friend then murders. As the story progresses, he finds himself unable to pull out of his dark world of turmoil, and so, he must deal with the misery, the lack of opportunities, crime, and the imminent rise of Nazism.

Alfred Döblin was a German novelist, essayist and doctor. His most famous work was Berlin Alexanderplatz, but his prolific writing influenced more than half a century of literary movements. His entire collection of historical novels to science fiction stories has made Döblin one of the most important figures of German literary modernism.

What's on your reading list?

Reading in German or even reading German literature translated into English is one of the best ways to better understand modern Germany! Which German novels would you recommend to fellow readers?