What environment could be more inspiring to writers and poets than the romantic cities of the Historic Highlights of Germany? Their chronicles read like a “Who’s Who” of world literature.

The university town of Heidelberg, for instance, has attracted a steady stream of literary greats: Goethe, Eichendorff, Hölderlin, Brentano, Keller, Mark Twain—to name a few. There you can go on special theme tours such as the “Literat(o)ur” to places where major poets and thinkers lived and worked, as well as a special poetic tour devoted to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which lets you follow the trail of the author of “Faust.”

Erfurt also boasts sites where the widely traveled Goethe worked — featuring programs like “On Goethe’s Trail in Thuringia’s Rome.” Goethe was also inspired as a spa guest in Wiesbaden.

Wiesbaden attracted its share of talent to the city’s spas, not the least of whom was Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The playwriting went on to describe his roulette experiences from the Casino in “The Gambler.”

Another author who placed his mark on the literary scene of the 20th century is Bertolt Brecht. Augsburg, where he was born, appropriately honors him with a national monument, the “Bertolt Brecht House,” where he first saw the light of the world, and a a tour dubbed ”Bertolt Brecht’s Paths in Augsburg.”

Key Dates in German Literature

800 The manuscript ”Evangeliar der Ada” in Trier

870  The manuscript „“Evangeliar Charles the Bold“ Regensburg

980 The manuscript ”Codex Egberti” in Trier

11th century  “Evangeliar Abbess Uta von Niedermünster” in Regensburg

1170 — 1230 Walther von der Vogelweide (poet) in Würzburg

13th century   „Riesen Codex“ St. Hildegard von Bingen in Wiesbaden

12th — 15th century The manuscript ”Bibliotheca Amploniana” in Erfurt

1235 — 1287 Konrad von Würzburg (poet) in Würzburg

1305 — 1340 The Manessan song manuscript in Heidelberg

1440 – Johannes Gutenberg invents printing process with movable type in Mainz, allowing mass production of printed books.

1731 – 1807  Sophie Laroche (writer) in Koblenz

1749 — 1832 J.W. v. Goethe in Erfurt

1759 — 1805 Friedrich Schiller in Erfurt

1778 – 1842 Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano in Koblenz

1781 — 1831 Achim von Arnim in Heidelberg

1797 — 1848 Annette von Droste-Hülshoff in Münster

1814 Goethe as spa guest in Wiesbaden

1817 — 1888 Theodor Storm in Potsdam

1862 — 1863 Fyodor Dostoevsky as spa guest in Wiesbaden

1898 — 1956 Bertolt Brecht in Augsburg

1898 - 1970  Erich Maria Remarque in Osnabrück