Is there a German analogue to Jules Verne & H.G. Wells?

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You know, early science fiction writer with a 19th century weltanschauung. Germany was the land of Progress, so there should be a German writer spinning fantasticshen tales of the amazing high science world just around the corner.

― DV, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

New Inaussprechlichen Answers.

― DV, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Goethe. He also wrote v. barmy 'science fact'.

― Andrew L, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

dirty vicar do you like HITLER!!??

― mark s, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Didn't Mary SHelly write Frankenstein in Germany?

― Pete, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

dirty vicar do you like HITLER!!??

Hitler is from the German Romantic tradition. I'd say a German Verne would be more from the German Classical tradition.

― DV, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wasn't Josef Goebbels a writer of some repute?

― dave q, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

As you say, Germany was the land of progress, so they shunned analogue everything.

― N., Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

My first thought was the Baron Munchausen, but he's a British fake from the 18th century, and more fantasy than sci fi.

There's lots in the 20th century. Arno Schmidt with 'The Egghead Republic' and Gunther Grass with 'The Rats'.

― Momus, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Would Fritz Lang or Dr. Caligari count?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I was thinking more of literature than film, and those German 1920s films are more fantasy than SF.

― DV, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

if hugo gernsback hadn't emigrated!!

walter benjamin haha

― mark s, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...

http://scifi.pages.at/anizone/me/whoisuhu.gif

― Dada, Wednesday, 30 July 2003 05:44 (twenty years ago) link

the answer is obvious -- RALF UND FLORIAN!

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 30 July 2003 05:49 (twenty years ago) link

six years pass...

wow, I saw this thread title and thought "Great question!" and then realised I had asked it.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link

Germany was the land of Progress

Not in the 19th century it wasn't!

― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:43 (fourteen years ago) link

http://io9.com/5199772/german-sf-through-two-world-wars-and-the-berlin-wall

I'm sure Jess Nevins has dug up some stuff on this, too, but it's probably sprinkled through his Encyclopedia Of Fantastic Victoriana rather than in one handy essay.

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:49 (fourteen years ago) link

very late to this, but Kepler, yer actual Kepler, an german, wrote the proto-verne/wells story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnium_(Kepler)

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Thursday, 15 October 2009 20:28 (fourteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Just got a hold of a copy of The Black Mirror, which was discussed in Daniel's link. Also reserved a copy of one of Rottensteiner's other books, View From Another Shore: European Science Fiction. Time permitting, I will try to read them and report back.

― Bloggers Might Ride (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 November 2009 18:40 (fourteen years ago) link

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