German literature

Some of the major movements or time periods of German literature are:

• High and late Middle Ages
• Humanism and Reformation
• Baroque
• Enlightenment
• Sturm und Drang
• Classicism
• Romanticism
• Biedermeier
• Junges Deutschland
• Poetic realism
• Naturalism
• Fin de siècle
• German literature of the Classical Moderne (German: Klassische Moderne)
  • Expressionism
  • Dadaism
• Exile literature
• Holocaust and survivor literature
• German literature after World War II

For well-known authors who wrote or write literature in the German language see list of German language authors and list of German language poets.