The Precursors In 1634, German astronomer
Johannes Kepler's
Somnium was published posthumously, distilling his new ideas on
cosmology during an imaginary journey from the Earth to the Moon. Although the text belongs to the genre of science fiction in the almost modern sense of the term, and was written by a German, its original version was written in Latin. Its first German adaptation,
Traum von Mond (
Moon Dream), was published by Ludwig Günther in 1898, at a time when Europe was witnessing the birth of its first great tales of scientific anticipation. In the 18th century, in 1744, , an amateur astronomer, imagined a journey to the first moon of
Mars in a short story entitled
Die geschwinde Reise auf dem Lufft-Schiff nach der Oberen Welt, welche jüngsthin fünff Personen angestellet [...] (
The Rapid Journey to the Upper World, recently made by five persons aboard an aerostat). This text is generally considered to be the first German-language science fiction story. Kindermann's account is particularly noteworthy for the attention it pays to the technical aspects of his imaginary journey: description of the sky map, calculation of the distance between Mars and Earth, and use of Franceso Lana-Terzi's theory of vacuum (1670) to move an aerostat through space. The style is characteristic of the late Baroque period, with allegories drawn from Greco-Roman mythology (the appearance of
Pheme or the god
Bellona) and numerous religious references. The world of Mars is ultimately presented as a religious utopia in which Martians communicate directly with God, without the intercession of the
Bible.
German Classicism and Romanticism In 1755, the philosopher
Immanuel Kant published a
History of Nature and Theory of Heaven, inspired by
Isaac Newton's new theories. The last part of this treatise is devoted in particular to the planets of the
Solar System, which, according to Kant, are all necessarily inhabited to allow the migration of souls. This thesis paved the way for interplanetary encounters. At the end of the eighteenth century, in another field, the German writer
Jean Paul (1763-1825) wrote a short story entitled
Der Maschinenmensch (
The Man-Machine), which parodied both the possible mechanization of all human actions (waking up, chewing, writing, etc.) and the materialistic approach of
La Mettrie, who had published his eponymous treatise in 1747. Inspired by the
English Gothic novel, which combines the marvellous with spirituality in a dark atmosphere mingled with anguish,
German Romanticism develops themes that explore the limits of rationality. For example, some of the
Night Pieces (1816–1817,
Nachtstücke) by
E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) evoke themes akin to science fiction, such as the human-shaped automaton or the trafficking of human organs, as in "
The Sandman". But the fantastic literary treatment of these elements always leaves the Hoffmannian hero vacillating between a scholarly interpretation of the facts and his fear of falling victim to terrible hallucinations. This period also saw the publication in 1810 of a futuristic novel by
Julius von Voß, a popular and prolific writer at the time.
Ini. Ein Roman aus dem einundzwanzigsten Jahrhundert (
Ini, a novel for the twenty-first century) tells the story of Guido, a young man who has many adventures around the world to win the heart of his beloved, the African princess Ini. His inventiveness and technical skills enable him to put an end to the fateful war between Europe and Africa. The story is a
pastiche of the
Bildungsroman, a literary genre typical of classical German literature, full of often convincing technical anticipations in fields as varied as weaponry, military strategy, religion, education, justice, social life and so on. In 1824, Julius von Voß also published a play in five acts, recounting a journey through time present, past and future. First act:
Berlin im Jahre 1724 (
Berlin in the year 1724), second and third acts:
Berlin im Jahre 1824 (
Berlin in the year 1824), fourth and fifth acts:
Berlin im Jahre 1924 (
Berlin in the year 1924).
Industrial revolution and Wilhelminian Prussia: 1870-1918 It was the industrial revolutions of the 19th century, and the advent of technology as a privileged instrument for the progress of human societies, that enabled modern science fiction to take off. In 1871, just as Jules Verne was reaching the peak of his literary output in France, modern German science fiction was born with the first short stories by
Kurd Laßwitz (1848-1910) and
Albert Daiber (1857-1928). The literary output of Kurd Laßwitz, who was also a publisher, mathematician, and philosopher, culminated in
Auf zwei Planeten (
On Two Planets), a sweeping novel of almost a thousand pages published in 1897. During a balloon trip to the North Pole, German explorers discovered a secret Martian station. The two civilizations soon come into contact, but an unfortunate incident threatens to lead to war. Between its publication date and its banning by the Third Reich, the novel sold 70,000 copies, a considerable figure for the time. Kurd Laßwitz's work, consisting of three novels and numerous short stories, develops narratives of a technical, philosophical or mathematical nature, largely inspired by
neo-Kantianism and, from the early 19th century onwards, the work of psycho-physicist
Gustav Fechner. At the beginning of the 20th century, the birth of
Zeppelin airships greatly stimulated the imagination of futurists.
Emil Sandt was one of the most famous representatives of this wave of writers who set themselves the task of communicating their enthusiasm for lighter-than-air aircraft to the entire German population.
Cavete! (
Cavete!) was one of the most popular novels of the Wilhelm era, and earned Emil Sandt the nickname of "Germany's Jules Verne" - an honor the author modestly refused. At a time of widespread euphoria for aeronautics, only an acerbic satirist like the Austrian writer
Karl Kraus dared to assert in 1908: "I date the end of the world from the beginnings of aeronautics." In 1909, Max Popp paid a vibrant tribute to Jules Verne in the first German monograph on the French novelist,
Julius Verne und sein Werk. Des großen Romantikers Leben, Werke und Nachfolger (
Jules Verne and his work. The life, works and successors of the great novelist), inspired by the contemporary work of
Charles Lemire. In the second and third parts of his book, Max Popp offers what can be considered the first major synthesis of the genre of technical anticipation at the time. In the cometary wake of Jules Verne's
Hector Servadac,
Friedrich Wilhelm Mader offers German youth an interstellar voyage to distant
Alpha Centauri with
Wunderwelten (Wonderful Worlds), an educational and entertaining novel published in 1911. A contemporary of Kurd Laßwitz,
Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915) was a whimsical anti-militarist utopian who published futuristic novels in the tradition of
Jonathan Swift's philosophical tales. The author gave free rein to a cosmic imagination that raises the question of the ontological link between the individual and the universe, without developing the purely technical elements typical of the genre. His two most famous works in this field are the collection of short stories
Astrale Noveletten (
Astral Novelettes), dated 1912, and the novel
Lesabéndio. Ein Asteroïden-Roman (
Lesabéndio. An Asteroid Novel), published in 1913. In it, Paul Scheerbart depicts lunar and extraterrestrial civilizations marveling at the luminous spectacle of a living universe. The same year, 1913, saw the publication of
Der Tunnel (
The Tunnel) by writer
Bernhard Kellermann (1879-1952). The novel was such a bestseller that it was adapted twice for the cinema in the span of twenty years. This "realist" novel vividly describes the economic and social consequences of building a gigantic rail tunnel under the Atlantic Ocean to link Europe and America. In the particular sub-genre of the anticipation short story, an author like
Carl Grunert distinguished himself with the successful publication of some thirty science fiction stories between 1904 and 1914. His most notable collections were
Feinde im Weltall? (
Enemies in the Universe?, 1907) and
Der Marsspion (
The Spy from Mars, 1908). Carl Grunert made numerous references to
Jules Verne,
Kurd Laßwitz and
Herbert George Wells, and developed some of their ideas in original ways. In the field of periodicals, the popular, anonymous novel
Der Luftpirat und sein lenkbares Luftschiff (
The Air Pirate and his Airship) was a publishing success between 1908 and 1912, with 165 weekly issues. A lone vigilante and master of the upper atmosphere, Captain Mors was clearly inspired by Jules Verne's heroes, a synthesis of
Robur the Conqueror and
Captain Nemo. One of the presumed authors of this episodic novel,
Oskar Hoffmann, wrote several other futuristic novels between 1902 and 1911, featuring the conquest of the air by dirigible balloons, as well as popular works on
astronomy and
technology. During this period, the pulp novel was represented by a prolific and popular author: Robert Kraft (1869-1916). His countless novels (nearly 40,000 pages in print) explored all literary genres, with a predilection for fantasy, adventure and futuristic fiction. These included
Der Herr der Lüfte (
Lord of the Air) in 1909,
Die Nihilit-Expedition (
In Search of Nihilit),
Im Zeppelin um die Welt (
Around the World in a Zeppelin), and
Im Aeroplan um die Erde (
In an Aeroplane Around the Earth) in 1910.
Weimar Republic: 1919-1932 Following Germany's defeat in
World War I, the science-fiction landscape of the
Weimar Republic was marked by a tenacious spirit of revenge that produced a plethora of militaristic works in which the German engineer, suddenly promoted to supreme defender of the humiliated nation, invented new and extraordinary weapons capable of making the enemy forget its odious
Treaty of Versailles. In 1922 alone, novels such as
Deutschlands Neubewaffnung und Freiheitskampf (''Germany's Rearmament and Fight for Freedom
), published anonymously, Der zweite Weltkrieg
(World War II
) by Werner Grassegger, and Der letzte Kampf
(The Last Fight
) by Hans Bußmann were published. In contrast, in a novel such as Fanale am Himmel
(Fanals in the Sky''), published in 1925, Karl-August Laffert counters this relentless revanchism with a vision of "aggressive pacifism", where peace can only be guaranteed by arms. On the scientific front, German engineer
Hanns Hörbiger's
glacial cosmogony (
Welteislehre), published in 1912, struck a chord with the public at the time. The idea of a thermodynamic universe alternating between balls of fire (sun, stars) and blocks of ice (planets, asteroids) provided the scientific background for novels such as Karl-August Laffert's
Der Untergang der Luna (
The End of the Moon), written in 1921, and Georg Theodor Fuhse's
Die Sintflut von Atlantis (
The Flood of Atlantis), published in 1928. The 1920s and 1930s saw the first technical trials of jet rockets, leading to the creation of the world's first aerospace club in
Berlin-Tegel, the
Verein für Raumschiffahrt (
Club for Space Aeronautics). This rocket craze soon gave rise to a literary movement known as
Weltraumbewegung (
Movement for Space), in which writers such as Otto Willi Gail (1896-1956) made their mark. Inspired by the work of German engineer
Hermann Oberth, which was widely popularized by
Max Valier,
Otto Willi Gail's work is almost entirely devoted to space travel, with many scientific and technical considerations. Hans Hardts
Mondfahrt (
A Trip to the Moon, 1928) can be read as a modern response to Jules Verne's novel
From the Earth to the Moon (1865). One of the most popular and prolific futurists of the period was undoubtedly
Otfrid von Hanstein, whose dozen or so novels were quickly adapted to English -at the express request of the famous publisher
Hugo Gernsback. His works combined adventure stories with detective stories and technical anticipations. His major titles were
Die Farm des Verschollenen (
The Farm of the Disappeared, 1924),
Elektropolis (
Radiopolis, 1927) and
Mond-Rak I (
To the Moon by Aerial Rocket, 1929). Technical anticipation and socialist ideals were also the hallmarks of authors like
Werner Illing, whose novel
Utopolis appeared in 1930 with
Der Bücherkreis, a publisher close to the Social Democratic Party (
SPD) of the time.
Phil Morgan, der Herr der Welt (
Phil Morgan, Master of the World) was the title of a series of futuristic novels popular in Germany in the 1920s. It appeared anonymously from 1914 to 1920, before being reprinted from 1922. The 170 issues of varying length that make up this series feature Phil Morgan at the controls of his "phenomenon-apparatus", an all-terrain vehicle that enables him to travel over land, sea, air, and even space.
Thea von Harbou wrote the science fiction novels
Metropolis (1925) and
The Rocket to the Moon (1928), both of which were adapted into silent films directed by
Fritz Lang. The Weimar Republic also witnessed the literary debut of a writer who was to enjoy immense publishing success:
Hans Dominik (1872-1945). A former pupil of
Kurd Laßwitz, Hans Dominik pursued a career as an electrical engineer and science journalist, before devoting himself entirely to writing novels of technical anticipation. At the heart of Hans Dominik's novels are scientific invention and technical extrapolation, synthesized in the central figure of the German engineer whose coveted discovery promises to improve the lot of the world's citizens. Hans Dominik makes highly effective use of the literary devices of the anticipation story, the spy novel, and geopolitical fiction. He is even the inventor of a new, more rhythmic form of narration, in which different scenes follow one another, with regularly alternating points of view and characters. His first popular successes were
Die Macht der Drei (
The Power of Three, 1921),
Atlantis (
Atlantis, 1924) and
Das Erbe der Uraniden (
The Legacy of the Uranids, 1926).
Science fiction and Nazism: 1933-1945 In the 1930s,
Nazi Germany exerted strong ideological control over all literary production through the
Reichskulturkammer, created on September 22, 1933. Censorship hit both German futurists (such as Kurd Laßwitz, deemed too democratic and pacifist) and foreign science fiction when the ideology did not sufficiently embrace the values of
National Socialism. This period of intellectual terror also triggered a wave of emigration that affected the nascent world of German science fiction, with, for example, the flight to the USA of writer
Curt Siodmak -who would later become a screenwriter for Hollywood studios- and director Fritz Lang, who had distinguished himself with two films in the anticipation genre: his famous dystopian film
Metropolis in 1927, followed by
Woman in the Moon (
Frau im Mond) in 1929. Politically isolated from foreign productions, German science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s was dominated by the novels of
Hans Dominik (1872-1945), which remained as popular as ever. Hans Dominik's work fits in seamlessly with Nazi ideology, both in terms of themes and subject matter. While the author is positively in favor of a federal union of European states, he also shows a marked concern for the maintenance of German hegemony over Europe and, more generally, of the white race over the rest of the world. Similarly, the figure of the traitor, one of the driving forces behind Hans Dominik's plots, is always a white man sold out to a foreign cause, who ends up paying dearly for his treachery and dying horribly. Hans Dominik's greatest successes of this period were
Atomgewicht 500 (
Atomic Weight 500, 1934) and
Lebensstrahlen (
Vital Rays, 1938).
Treibstoff SR (
RI Fuel, 1940), Hans Dominik's last novel, was even sent as a Christmas present to German troops stationed at the front, despite the shortage of paper and manpower in printing works at the time. Officially supported by the Nazi regime,
Hanns Hörbiger's theory of glacial cosmogony continued to fuel the imaginations of futurists of the period, as did
radium's atomic energy and brain waves, first measured in 1929 by German physiologist
Hans Berger. In the field of construction, Egon Hundeicker's
Alumnit (1934) and
Paul Eugen Sieg's (1899-1950)
Detatom (1936) showcase German engineers capable of inventing a new synthetic material - harder than steel, but very light - that would allow space travel and ensure the supremacy of German technology. The concept of
Lebensraum, theorized by
Adolf Hitler to justify his expansionist policy, prompted some authors of the period to take up the ambitious
Atlantropa project by German architect
Herman Sörgel: the construction of a dam across the
Strait of Gibraltar linking Europe to the African continent. In
Die Brücke des Schicksals (
The Bridge of Destiny), written by Wolfgang Lindroder in 1937, or
Dämme im Mittelmeer (
Dams on the Mediterranean), written by Walter Kegel in the same year, the draining of the
Mediterranean Sea would lead to a significant gain in territory and the territorial merger of two entire continents. The idea was taken up again in 1938 by Titus Taeschner in
Eurofrika. Die Macht der Zukunft (
Eurafrica. The power of the future). While in the USA the
space opera sub-genre made its debut under the pen of
Edward Elmer Smith with, among others, the
Lensman series (begun in 1934), German authors also began to take their heroes to the far reaches of the universe to carry the torch of Nazi racial values, These include Stanislaus Bialkowski's
Krieg im All (
War in the Universe, 1935) and Dietrich Kärrner's
Verschollen im Weltall (Missing in the Universe, 1938). In the field of popular episodic novels, the 1930s were marked by the immense success of
Sun Koh, der Erbe von Atlantis (
Sun Koh, the Heir of Atlantis), a science fiction series written by
Paul Alfred Müller,
alias Lok Myler or Freder van Holk, between 1933 and 1936. Over the course of the series' one hundred and fifty issues, Sun Koh, a Mayan prince, heir to the throne of Atlantis and archetype of the
Aryan race, undergoes many trials before returning to his homeland, accompanied by his faithful British bellboy, Hal Mervin, and black boxing champion, Nimba. Paul Alfred Müller's work combines the
theories of the hollow earth with the ancient legend of the lost continent of
Atlantis. His work had a lasting impact on post-war science fiction writers.
West German science fiction: 1949-1990 After Germany split into two distinct territories in 1949 (the
Federal Republic of Germany and the
German Democratic Republic), West German science fiction initially followed in Hans Dominik's footsteps. But from the 1950s onwards, Anglo-Saxon literature became accessible to German readers, with the first stories by
A. E. van Vogt,
Robert Heinlein or
Arthur C. Clarke, which appeared in sometimes very rough translations. At the same time, the publishing and literary landscape for science fiction began to take shape, and the first specialized collections appeared. The 1960s were marked by two writers in particular,
Karl-Herbert Scheer and
Walter Ernsting, a professional translator working for Pabel Verlag. Eager to be published, the latter sent German publishers his science fiction manuscripts under the Anglo-Saxon-sounding pseudonym
Clark Darlton, presenting them as translations of American works. In 1955, Walter Ernstig published his first novel,
UFO am Nachthimmel (
A UFO in the Night Sky), and founded the
German Science Fiction Club in
Frankfurt, an association designed to encourage young German futurists. Walter Ernsting's favorite themes at the time were the nuclear threat against the backdrop of the
Cold War, and the possible extraterrestrial origin of mankind -an idea he would later take up with Swiss
ufologist Erich von Däniken. But the big event came in 1961, when Moewig Editions commissioned Walter Ernsting and
Karl-Herbert Scheer to create a new weekly SF series with thirty or fifty issues and recurring heroes. Thus was born one of Germany's most popular low-cost series, the
Perry Rhodan cycle. The series exploited all the narrative and literary resources of space opera and military SF, developing a science fiction that initially focused on action and adventure before moving, a little later, onto a more spiritual and philosophical path. By 1967, the novelistic universe of the series was such that the publishers inserted a
Perry Rhodan Dictionary page and a page dedicated to readers in each new issue, while the series was also released in comic book form. The team of Perry Rhodan authors includes such famous names as
Kurt Brand,
Kurt Mahr,
William Voltz, H. G. Ewers, Marianne Sydow and
Thomas Ziegler. At the same time, Austrian-born writer
Herbert W. Franke began his literary career with two novels,
Das Gedankennetz (
The Thought Network, 1961) and
Der Orchideenkäfig (
The Orchid Cage, 1961), which question notions of reality and virtuality while exploring the resources of the human brain. Herbert W. Franke dominated the German-language literary scene in the 1970s and 1980s, with novels such as
Zone Null (
Zone Zero, 1972) and
Die Kälte des Weltraums (
The Coldness of Space, 1984). He was soon joined by first-rate authors such as
Carl Amery (from 1974), with
Das Königsprojekt (
The Royal Project, 1974) or
Der Untergang der Stadt Passau (
The Fall of the City of Passau, 1975), a brief "digital exercise" inspired by
Walter M. Miller's
A Canticle for Leibowitz. Miller, or
Wolfgang Jeschke, who distinguished himself with
Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung (
The Last Day of Creation),
Kurd-Laßwitz prize for best novel in 1981, and the publication of
Das Science-Fiction-Jahr, a specialized almanac featuring feature articles, book presentations and reviews. Meanwhile, circulation of the Perry Rhodan series reached 200,000 copies a week in the mid-1970s. In 1980, to mark the thousandth issue of the series, the first worldwide "Perry Rhodan" convention was held in
Mannheim. Gradually, the tone of West German futuristic novels changed, giving way to a certain disillusionment with, and mistrust of, technology. The archetype of the German engineer as standard-bearer of a certain form of cultural hegemony was definitively abandoned. Assimilating technical progress with an advanced form of limitation of individual freedoms, German authors now turn to
dystopia. But apart from the Perry Rhodan series, German science fiction had a hard time breaking out of its borders. In 1980, the German Science Fiction Club created the
Deutscher Science Fiction Preis, an endowed literary award reserved exclusively for German productions. Designed to boost the country's literary creation and encourage young authors, this literary award failed to play the driving role that equivalent prizes in the USA could.
Science fiction and socialism in the GDR: 1949-1990 After the founding of the
German Democratic Republic in 1949, a socialist-inspired science fiction literature was born, known as
wissenschaftlich-phantastische Literatur ("scientific fantasy literature") or
utopische Literatur ("utopian literature"). Inspired by the great literary role models Jules Verne, Kurd Laßwitz and Hans Dominik, East German SF developed independently, cut off from American production, which was censored in socialist countries. Even the term "Science Fiction" was banned, as it ideologically evoked the idea of anti-humanist and
imperialist literature. From a socialist point of view, the only possible legitimization of anticipation literature is
utopia, the socio-historical concept that serves as both the foundation and the culmination of the work of social transformation being carried out in the countries of Eastern Europe. East German science fiction began as early as 1949, with a novel by
Ludwig Turek entitled
Die Goldene Kugel (
The Golden Sphere). The 1950s, marked by the workers' novel and the political context of the
Cold War, saw the emergence of a utopian literature, relatively uniform in its themes, which on the whole presented a victorious communism that had definitively abolished hunger, disease, money and crime. In these ideological visions of the future, citizens work in socialist fashion, each according to his or her abilities, each according to his or her needs. The optimism of the authors of the time, driven by sincere hope in another possible world, was also encouraged by a system of state censorship and ideological self-censorship. Notable authors of the period were Klaus Kunkel with
Heißes Metall (
Burning Metal, 1952), Heinz Vieweg with
Ultrasymet bleibt geheim (
Ultrasymet remains secret, 1955), H. L. Fahlberg with
Erde ohne Nacht (
An Earth without Night, 1956) and
Eberhardt del'Antonio with
Gigantum (1957). made the first space flight Following the successful launch of
Sputnik in 1957 and man's first flight into space with
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961, the 1960s literary trend in science fiction first exploited the narrative resources of space adventure before focusing on
Real-Phantastik, a fantastic realism that sees science fiction in terms of its predictive aspect for the future. Notable authors of the period included Eberhardt del'Antonio with
Titanus (1959),
Günther Krupkat with
Die große Grenze (1960) and
Carlos Rasch with
Im Schatten der Tiefsee (1965). From the 1970s onwards, East German science fiction literature moved away from the interplanetary utopia of space, and gained in philosophical depth. It embraced new literary techniques and began to express a more critical view of society, often using irony. Positive utopia is nuanced by dystopia, giving rise to an ambivalent literature that hints at deep political disillusionment. These years were also marked by the creation of numerous science fiction clubs at the initiative of fans or authors, the most important of which was the
Arbeitskreis Utopische Literatur (
Working Circle on Utopian Literature), founded in March 1972. However, the absence of the
right of assembly forced fans to meet in large socialist institutions such as universities or mass cultural organizations, and made it difficult to reserve premises. In the same year, 1972, the Rolf Krohn affair cast a pall over the already fragile world of East German science fiction clubs. As part of the
Stanislas-Lem-Klub's activities, student Rolf Krohn was disbarred for life from the University of Dresden by a secretary of the Socialist Party, who accused him of making anti-socialist remarks and opening the door to enemy ideology. A
witch-hunt ensued, and the club ceased all activity in 1973. Notable authors of the period were
Johanna and Günther Braun, with
Der Irrtum des großen Zauberers (
The Mistake of the Great Enchanter, 1972),
Heiner Rank with Die Ohnmacht der Allmächtigen (
The Impotence of the Almighty, 1973), Herbert Ziergiebel with
Zeit der Sternschnuppen (
The Time of Shooting Stars, 1972). , science fiction writer and editor In the late 1970s and early 1980s, state censorship by the "Publishing and Book Trade Service" eased considerably. In 1978, for example, the East German edition of
Aldous Huxley's
Brave New World was finally authorized. At the same time, however, the state became more vigilant about anything published in the field of utopian literature. These years were marked by a great diversification of literary production, with an offer aimed at all audiences (youth, teenagers, adults), sweeping across all genres (from trivial literature to deeply philosophical novels with complex structures) and delving deeper into purely stylistic and formal aspects. Thematically, the authors of the 1980s abandoned the conquest of space and the genre's traditional utopian aspirations to take a closer look at the real-life problems brought about by the progress of techno-science. Science fiction no longer simply had a predictive function; it now took on a preventive role, questioning the future about the dangers inherent in technical progress. Notable authors of this era include
Gert Prokop with
Wer stiehlt schon Unterschenkel (''Who'd have the idea of stealing legs?
, 1977), Arne Sjöberg with Die stummen Götter
(The Silent Gods
, 1978), Angela and Karlheinz Steinmüller with Andymon
(Andymon
, 1982), Rainer Fuhrmann with Medusa
(Medusa
, 1985), Michael Szameit with Drachenkreuzer Ikaros
(The Icarus Cruiser'', 1987). From a publishing point of view, one of the key figures was undoubtedly
Erik Simon, who worked as a writer, translator, critic and publisher of science fiction in the GDR. He translated numerous science fiction texts from the
USSR,
Bulgaria and Anglo-Saxon countries, and contributed to theoretical research on the genre in the GDR.
German SF revival after reunification , author of
The Carpet Makers. The 1990s saw both a new direction in science fiction publishing policy and a revival of the genre thanks to the emergence of a young generation of authors born after
World War II. In the publishing world, this period was marked by the reissue of classics such as those by Kurd Laßwitz and Hans Dominik in their original, unexpurgated versions. The former's novel
Auf zwei Planeten was published for the first time in its unabridged version in 1998, while some of the latter's novels were published in unabridged and critical versions by Heyne from 1997 onwards. Among the critically acclaimed young German authors to have won specialist awards are
Andreas Eschbach,
Michael Marrak,
Marcus Hammerschmitt and
Frank Schätzing, although the latter is more eclectic. Andreas Eschbach's first novel,
The Carpet Makers, published in Germany in 1996 (1999 in France), paved the way for this new generation of writers. He was soon joined by Michael Marrak, with his critically acclaimed novel
Lord Gamma (2000), and Frank Schätzing, with
The Swarm (
Der Schwarm, 2004), an American-style techno-thriller that earned its author first place on the 2005 bestseller list for all genres. These successes are all the more remarkable given that the 2000s were also marked by a clear revival of public and publisher interest in fantasy, to the detriment of science fiction. The worldwide success of
J. K. Rowling's
Harry Potter and the film adaptation of
The Lord of the Rings illustrate this trend. After German reunification, on the other hand, authors from the former GDR found it much harder to make a living from their work, due to the collapse of the East German science-fiction book market and heightened competition.
Michael Szameit, for example, published
Copyworld in 1999, a novel originally written under the socialist regime in 1989, but whose manuscript had, according to the author, remained hidden in an attic to protect it from unannounced
Stasi searches. Others, such as Angela and Karlheinz Steinmüller, who have moved into the field of economic forecasting, continued to publish a few anticipation novels, but above all attempt to give a better understanding of East German science fiction with historical and critical works on the socialist period. In the field of mainstream SF series, Jo Zybell and Editions Bastei launched a new
post-apocalyptic SF series,
Maddrax, which tells the story of a fighter pilot propelled 500 years into the future, after a comet hits the Earth. In Germany, the series was so successful that a French adaptation began in 2007, published by EONS. In 2007, Swiss publisher Unitall began publishing a series of neo-Nazi military science fiction novels entitled
Stahlfront (
The Steel Front). The alleged author, Torn Chaines, portrays Aryan heroes with a nationalist ideology peppered with reminiscences of Nazi Germany. The series was blacklisted in 2009 by the
Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien, an agency of the German federal government that checks content and accessibility for young people. == From general literature to science fiction ==