Often regarded as the most significant German writer ever, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was well versed in many different disciplines. The most distinguished representative of Weimar Classicism made history with his brilliant romantic novel titled The Sorrows of Young Werther, and a magnificent tragedy called Faust. The former tells the story of an artistically inclined, misunderstood young man called Werther, who writes letters to his friend Wilhelm, mostly describing his unrequited love of a married woman named Lotte. Unable to control his feelings, Werther eventually commits suicide. Faust is a tragedy which consists of two parts; the first part revolves around a bet between God and Mephistopheles (the Devil), where Mephisto claims he can corrupt Heinrich Faust, a scholar and God's pet mortal. Faust strikes a deal with Mephistopheles, promising that he will serve him in the afterlife in return for fulfillment of all wishes while he is on Earth. The Devil also warns Faust that he shouldn't wish for any moment to last forever, or he will fall dead on the spot. After a series of events, the second parts reveals the scholar's destiny; even though he lost the wager with the Devil, Faust earns redemption and ends up in Heaven after all. Goethe's works had a tremendous influence on many renowned European writers, composers and philosophers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, Friedrich Schiller, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gustave Mahler, which is a fact that testifies about his genius. He spent most of his life in the city of Weimar, where he eventually died in 1832.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Brothers Grimm collected many famous fairy tales, such as the Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Snow White.

As renowned collectors and publishers of children's stories, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm influenced a multitude of children across the world. We have all heard of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, Rapunzel, The Twelve Brothers, and numerous other delightful tales with Brothers Grimm signature on them. It must be noted, however, that the Grimms weren't actual authors of the stories; instead, they collected folk tales from various people and published them. The brothers, born in 1785 and 1786, were also scholars who devised the Grimm's Law, which has an application in linguistics, and were eventually both employed at the University of Göttingen. Wilhelm Grimm, the younger brother, passed away in 1859, and Jacob lived for four more years, but their stories will forever fill the hearts and minds of children everywhere.

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht, a German writer born in Augsburg in 1898, is most famous for his dramatic literature, poetry and founding of the 'epic theater' movement. He firmly believed that theater audience should not become too immersed in the characters and events portrayed on the stage, and that the plays should entice the people to become more active, to think. Being a devoted Marxist himself, Brecht included many elements of his political orientation into his works, which earned him hard criticism from the Americans after WWII. He wrote Baal, his first play in 1918, at the age of 20, followed by Spartacus (later renamed to Drums in the Night) a year later. Bertolt Brecht believed that true challenge lies in modification of existing works, which was clearly a guideline throughout his career. After being rejected by the Westerners because of his communist beliefs, Brecht settled in East Berlin, where he got a theater company, the Berliner Ensemble, along with his very own theater. After his death in 1856, the theater was taken over by his spouse, Helene Weigel. Brecht's most important dramas include the Threepenny Opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony, The Jungle of Cities and others, while some of his most significant poems are How Fortunate the Man with None, To Posterity, What Has Happened, and The Mask of Evil.

Hermann Hesse

Herman Hesse received a Nobel Prize for his seminal novel titled The Glass Bead Game.

Born in 1877 in Calw, a city located in the northern part of Schwarzwald (Black Forest), Herman Hesse grew up in a very religious family, but never quite adopted the piety of his missionary parents. He was a defiant youth and refused to attend theological classes; after numerous conflicts he attempted to take his own life, which resulted in his hospitalization. When young Hesse recovered and finished the Cannstatt Grammar School, he tried to become a bookshop apprentice, but he quickly grew tired of it and departed, trying the mechanic's trade instead. This couldn't satisfy Hesse's perky nature either, so he became a bookshop apprentice once again, this time in Tübingen. Having access to numerous books, he soon became infatuated with them, eventually beginning to write his own works. A novel titled Peter Camezind was his first successful literary accomplishment, earning him recognition among his peers as well as a substantial amount of money. Herman Hesse was largely interested in spirituality, studying different books about the subject (including works of Arthur Schopenhauer), and even seeking enlightenment in countries of the Orient, which had a profound impact on his literature. He fell on hard times during WWII, since he openly opposed nationalism, and his wife became mentally ill. After the war, Hesse moved to Italy, where he created his most famous works, such as Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. Another important work, Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth, was published in 1917 under the pseudonym of Emil Sinclair, featuring an interesting story about a boy confused by the shallowness of the world which surrounds him. He died in 1962 in Switzerland, at the age of 85, but one could easily say he achieved immortality through his brilliant, timeless novels.

Paul Thomas Mann

A photograph of Thomas Mann, taken by an American photographer Carl Van Vechten.

Paul Thomas Mann, a great German writer of short stories and novels, was born in the Schleswig-Holstein city of Lübeck in 1875. He spent most of his adult life in Munich, where he started his career in writing with Little Herr Friedemann, his first short story. In 1929 Mann won the Nobel Prize for his first novel called Buddenbrooks, which tells the story of a family similar to his own. After the Nazis rose to power in 1933, Thomas Mann moved to Switzerland, and later to America, eventually returning to Kilchberg in Switzerland. Although he was a great opponent of national socialism, the Nazis had a certain degree of respect for the renowned author and Nobel Prize winner, and did not burn any of his books in the 1933 pyre. It must be noted that he was more right-wing oriented prior to and during WWI, and gradually shifted his orientation towards the center and later to the left. Some of his most renowned works, besides the already mentioned ones, include The Magic Mountain, Doktor Faustus, Joseph and His Brothers and the homoerotic Death in Venice. Several other Mann's works deal with sexuality, mostly with relationships between older men and boys, which is probably a reflection of the author's orientation (according to his diaries), in spite of his marriage. His six children, who were all artistically inclined, made significant careers of their own, Klaus Mann in particular. Thomas Mann's literary work inspired many great artists, such as Orhan Pamuk, Franz Kafka, Michel Houellebecq and Herman Hesse, which is sufficient proof of the man's genius in its own right. He died in 1955 in Zürich, and is buried in the nearby city of Kilchberg, where he spent his last days.

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller co-founded the Weimar Theater, the leading theater of the time, with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Friedrich Schiller, one of the most important representatives of Weimar Classicism along with Goethe, was well versed in drama, poetry, history and philosophy. His rise to fame began with his first play, Die Räuber (The Robbers), a remarkable work which criticizes corruption within the society; however, that same play was the reason he was expelled from the military academy in Stuttgart he was attending at the time. Schiller then moved to Weimar, followed by a 10-year stay in Jena, but he eventually returned to establish the Weimar Theater with Goethe in 1799. Schiller's cooperation with Goethe was a fruitful one, a fact proven by their joint venture called Die Xenien (The Xenies), an assembly of satirical poetry directed towards their literary 'rivals'. Taking into account the multitude of his talents, Friedrich Schiller is best remembered as a brilliant playwright, with classics such as Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans), Wilhelm Tell, Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love), and several others. He also wrote history books (especially during his stay in Jena), poems and philosophical papers which deal with aesthetics, ethics and freedom. Schiller's works greatly influenced Fyodor Dostoevsky, the renowned Russian novelist, who idealized and later ridiculed the German playwright. Fritz, as everyone called him, was not of particularly good health, eventually succumbing to tuberculosis in 1805, at the age of 45, leaving his last play Demetrius unfinished.