The Greatest Nonfiction Books Written by German Authors
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1 . The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl is a book based on the writings from a diary written by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The...
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2 . Relativity by Albert Einstein
In clear, concise language that is accessible to all, Albert Einstein's brilliant theory is explained and its implications discussed.
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3 . Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was published on February 21, 1848, and is one of the world's most infl...
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4 . Das Kapital by Karl Marx
Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Ökonomie (German pronunciation: [das kapiˈtaːl]) (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written in German by Karl Ma...
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5 . The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
The Origins of Totalitarianism is a book by Hannah Arendt which classed Nazism and Stalinism as totalitarian movements. Its original title was to be 'The Burden of Our Times', and the move away fro...
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6 . Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil (German: Jenseits von Gut und Böse), subtitled "Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future" (Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft), is a book by the German philosopher Friedrich N...
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7 . On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche
On the Genealogy of Morality, or On the Genealogy of Morals (German: Zur Genealogie der Moral), subtitled "A Polemic" (Eine Streitschrift), is a book by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, comp...
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8 . Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher
Small Is Beautiful is Oxford-trained economist E. F. Schumacher’s classic call for the end of excessive consumption. Schumacher inspired such movements as “Buy Locally” and “Fair Trade,” while voic...
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9 . Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer
One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) believed that human action is determined not by reason but by 'will' - the blind and irrational desire for physi...
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10 . Being and Time by Martin Heidegger
Being and Time is a book by German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Although written quickly, and despite the fact that Heidegger never completed the project outlined in the introduction, it remains h...
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11 . The Harmony of the Worlds by Johannes Kepler
Harmonices Mundi (Latin: The Harmony of the Worlds, 1619) is a book by Johannes Kepler. In the work Kepler discusses harmony and congruence in geometrical forms and physical phenomena. The final se...
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12 . Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf, in English: My Struggle, is a book by Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925...
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13 . The Ants by E. O. Wilson, Bert Hölldobler
This book is primarily aimed at academics as a reference work, detailing the anatomy, physiology, social organization, ecology, and natural history of ants. The Ants is a Pulitzer Prize-winning...
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14 . Economy and Society by Max Weber
Alongside The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Economy and Society is considered to be one of Weber's most important works. Extremely broad in scope, the book covers numerous themes i...
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15 . Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
The Critique of Pure Reason (German: Kritik der reinen Vernunft ) by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, second edition 1787, is one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. ...
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16 . Philosophical Writings by Novalis
Novalis: Philosophical Writings is the first extensive scholarly translation in English from the philosophical work of the late eighteenth-century German Romantic writer Novalis (Friedrich von Hard...
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17 . Pavel's Letters by Monika Maron
Teasing her family's past out of the fog of oblivion and lies, one of Germany's greatest writers asks about the secrets families keep, about the fortitude of ordinary people in extraordinary circum...
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18 . Memoirs of My Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber
In 1884, the distinguished German jurist Daniel Paul Schreber suffered the first of a series of mental collapses that would afflict him for the rest of his life. In his madness, the world was revea...
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19 . Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger
Storm of Steel (in German: In Stahlgewittern) is the memoir of German officer Ernst Jünger's experiences on the Western Front during the First World War. It was originally printed privately in 1920...
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20 . Systematic Theology by Wolfhart Pannenberg
An important mark of a systematic theology is that it be distinct from the rest; owning one does not preclude the need for others. What distinguishes Pannenberg's (systematic theology, Univ. of Mun...
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21 . On War by Carl Von Clausewitz
Vom Kriege is a book on war and military strategy by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, written mostly after the Napoleonic wars, between 1816 and 1830, and published posthumously by his wife in...
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23 . The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (German: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is a book written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician....
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24 . Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty pri...
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28 . Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss
In this classic work, Leo Strauss examines the problem of natural right and argues that there is a firm foundation in reality for the distinction between right and wrong in ethics and politics. On ...
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29 . The New Science of Politics by Eric Voegelin
Compressed within the Draconian economy of the six Walgreen lectures is a complete theory of man, society, and history, presented at the most profound and intellectual level. . . . Voegelin's [work...
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30 . Human, All Too Human by Friedrich Nietzsche
Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits (German: Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für freie Geister) is a book by 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published i...
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31 . The Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche
Perhaps one of the most controversial and inflammatory philosophers in western civilization, Friedrich Nietzsche summarized his extraordinary ideas in "The Twilight of the Idols." This work is a li...
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32 . The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx
Marx's study of the events leading to the coup d'etat of "Napolean the Little" on December 2, 1851, written within a few weeks of the coup, is one of the first works by Marx in which he states his ...
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33 . Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein
Ideas and Opinions contains essays by eminent scientist Albert Einstein on subjects ranging from atomic energy, relativity, and religion to human rights, and economics. Previously published article...
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34 . Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt
The controversial journalistic analysis of the mentality that fostered the Holocaust Originally appearing as a series of articles in The New Yorker, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning repor...
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35 . Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx
Written during the winter of 1857-8, the Grundrisse was considered by Marx to be the first scientific elaboration of communist theory. A collection of seven notebooks on capital and money, it both ...
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36 . Gandhi's Truth by Erik H. Erikson
Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence, written by Erik H. Erikson and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1969, it won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the 19...
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37 . The World as Will and Idea by Arthur Schopenhauer
The World as Will and Representation (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung) is the central work of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. It was published in December 1818.
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39 . The Other Education: What you should know about the natural sciences by Ernst Peter Fischer
It was published as a reaction to Dieter Schwanitz' bestseller "Education. Everything there is to know", in which the natural sciences were deliberately excluded.
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40 . German History 1800–1918 by Thomas Nipperdey
Thomas Nipperdey offers readers insights into the history and the culture of German nationalism, bringing to light much-needed information on the immediate prenational period of transition. A subje...
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41 . The Meaning of Hitler by Sebastian Haffner
The Meaning of Hitler is the title of the English translation of the originally German 1978 book Anmerkungen zu Hitler by the journalist and writer Raimund Pretzel, who published all his books unde...
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42 . Peeling the Onion by Günter Grass
Peeling the Onion (German: Beim Häuten der Zwiebel) is an autobiographical work by German Nobel Prize-winning author and playwright Günter Grass, published in 2006. It begins with the end of his ch...
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43 . Phenomenology of Mind by G. W. F. Hegel
Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807) is one of G.W.F. Hegel's most important philosophical works. It is translated as The Phenomenology of Spirit or The Phenomenology of Mind due to the dual meaning i...
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44 . Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 Blankenburg am Harz – 8 May 1936, Munich) was a German historian and philosopher whose interests also included mathematics, science, and art. He is bes...
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46 . Works of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (German pronunciation: [ˈgɔtfrit ˈvɪlhɛlm fən ˈlaɪpnɪts]; 1 July 1646 [OS: 21 June] – 14 November 1716) was a German philosopher, polymath and mathematician who wrote ...
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48 . On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church by Martin Luther
Although the term Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, typically refers to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC, in ...
