Discover the Best Books Set in Eastern Germany – This article groups books set in the eastern German states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Saxony-Anhalt. Some regions are still sparsely represented in literature, but together they form a coherent literary landscape shaped by shared history, especially the GDR period and its aftermath.
Read the separate article about books set in Berlin.
Discover books set in Northwestern Germany.
Explore books set in Southern Germany.
Browse more books set in Germany.
Explore Books Set in Brandenburg
Below is a selection of books set in Brandenburg, the northeastern German state that surrounds Berlin.
The region is closely associated with major literary figures such as Heinrich von Kleist, author of The Marquise of O., and Theodor Fontane, whose novel Effi Briest is a cornerstone of German realism. Brandenburg is also the birthplace of Wilhelm von Humboldt, founder of Berlin’s Humboldt University, and his brother Alexander von Humboldt, whose life is vividly reimagined in Daniel Kehlmann’s novel Measuring the World.
About People by Juli Zeh
-
- Setting: Brandenburg (a fictional village called Bracken) and Berlin (Kreuzberg)
- Year of publication: 2022
- Original title: Über Menschen
- 320 pages
- Notable: The author, Juli Zeh, was awarded many German literary accolades, including the German Book Prize (Deutscher Bücherpreis), the Thomas Mann Prize, the Rausirer Literarurpreis, the Bremer Literaturpreis / Förderpreis, and the Heinrich Böll Prize.
Read the full book page: About People
Unterleuten by Juli Zeh
-
- Setting: Brandenburg
- Year of publication: 2016
- Original title: Unterleuten
- 641 pages
- Notable: The author, Juli Zeh, received many German literary accolades, including the German Book Prize (Deutscher Bücherpreis), the Thomas Mann Prize, the Rausirer Literarurpreis, the Bremer Literaturpreis / Förderpreis, and the Heinrich Böll Prize.
Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck
-
- Setting: Brandenburg (Scharmützelsee)
- Year of publication: 2008
- Original title: Heimsuchung
- 150 pages
- Notable: The author, Jenny Erpenbeck, won many literary awards, including the Thomas Mann Prize, the Hans Fallada Prize, the Premio Strega Europeo, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the European Literature Prize, and the International Booker Prize.
Read the full book page: Visitation
Discover Books set in Saxony (Sachsen)
Below is a selection of novels set in Saxony (Sachsen), a state in eastern Germany bordering Poland and the Czech Republic, with major cultural centres such as Dresden and Leipzig. Long associated with publishing, scholarship, and literature, Saxony occupies a central place in German cultural history.
Leipzig is home to the Leipzig Book Fair (Leipzicher Buchmesse), the second-largest book fair in Germany after Frankfurt, as well as the German Museum of Books and Writing (Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum), the oldest museum of its kind in the world.
Writers closely linked to Saxony include the Enlightenment dramatist Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, the Romantic poet Novalis—whose life is portrayed in Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower—as well as writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Friedrich Nietzsche, who studied at Leipzig University. More recent voices include Erich Kästner, author of children’s books such as Emil and the Detectives, and the contemporary poet Durs Grünbein.
Novels set in Dresden:
The Tower by Uwe Tellkamp
-
- Setting: Dresden
- Year of publication: 2008
- Original title: Der Turm
- 800 pages
- Notable: Winner of the German Book Prize (Deutscher Buchpreis)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
-
- Setting: Dresden
- Year of publication: 1969
- Original title: Slaughterhouse-Five
- 215 pages
- Notable: One of the most famous anti-war novels and a cult classic of American literature.
Read the full book page: Slaughterhouse-Five
Novels set in Leipzig:
While We were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer
-
- Setting: Leipzig
- Year of publication: 2006
- Original title: Als wir träumten
- 528 pages
- Notable: Winner of the Rheingau Literatur Preis. The author, Clemens Meyer, also won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and the Bremer Literaturpreis.
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
-
- Setting: Various places in Germany, including Munich, Leipzig, and the ficticious Pfeiffering (modelled on Polling bei Weilheim); Palestrina (Italy)
- Year of publication: 1947
- Original title: Doktor Faustus: Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn, erzählt von einem Freunde
- 580 pages
- Notable: The author, Thomas Mann, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Goethe Prize.
Read the full book page: Doctor Faustus
Explore Books set in Thuringia (Thüringen)
Thuringia is a German state at the centre of the country, with important cities and cultural centres including Erfurt, Jena, and Weimar.
Thuringia occupies a central place in German literary history. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller both lived and worked in Weimar, making the city a focal point of German Classicism. The Romantic poet Novalis studied at the University of Jena and met his great love, Sophie von Kühn, in Bad Tennstedt—an episode memorably reimagined in The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald. Wolfgang Hilbig (author of I) was born in Meuselwitz.
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
-
- Setting: Various settings in Germany, mainly in Thuringia and Saxony, including Jena, Leipzig, Wittenberg, Bad Tennstedt, and Grüningen Castle.
- Year of publication: 1995
- Original title: The Blue Flower
- 244 pages
- Notable: Penelope Fitzgerald, the author, received many literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a Golden PEN Award by English PEN for “a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature”.
Read the full book page: The Blue Flower
Naked Among Wolves by Bruno Apitz
-
- Setting: Buchenwald
- Year of publication: 1958
- Original title: Nackt unter Wölfen
- 587 pages
Elective Affinities by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-
- Setting: Weimar
- Year of publication: 1809
- Original title: Die Wahlverwandtschaften
- 272 pages
Discover Books set in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a German state in the far north-east of the country, bordering the Baltic Sea and Poland. Its largest cities are Schwerin and Rostock.
Important German writers associated with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern include Hans Fallada (Little Man, What Now? and Every Man Dies Alone), Wolfgang Koeppen (author of The Hothouse and Pigeons on the Grass), and Walter Kempowski (German Chronicle and Echolot).
Kruso by Lutz Seiler
-
- Setting: Hiddensee (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
- Year of publication: 2014
- Original title: Kruso
- 480 pages
- Notable: The author, Lutz Seiler, was awarded many German literary accolades, including the Georg Büchner Prize, the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the Fontane Prize, and the Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis.