Editing Germany (section)

=== Literature and philosophy ===
{{Main|German literature|German philosophy}}
[[File:Grimm.jpg|thumb|[[Brothers Grimm]], who collected popular German folk tales and published them in [[Grimms' Fairy Tales|a collection]]]]
German literature can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the works of writers such as [[Walther von der Vogelweide]] and [[Wolfram von Eschenbach]]. Well-known German authors include [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Friedrich Schiller]], [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]] and [[Theodor Fontane]]. The collections of folk tales published by the [[Brothers Grimm]] popularised [[German folklore]] on an international level.<ref name="D99ff">{{cite journal |last=Dégh|first= Linda |year=1979|title=Grimm's Household Tales and its Place in the Household|journal=Western Folklore|volume=38 |number=2|pages=99–101|doi=10.2307/1498562 |jstor=1498562}}</ref> The Grimms also gathered and codified regional variants of the German language, grounding their work in historical principles; their {{lang|de|[[Deutsches Wörterbuch]]}}, or German Dictionary, sometimes called the Grimm dictionary, was begun in 1838 and the first volumes published in 1854.<ref name="DWBhistory">{{cite web|title=History of the ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' |url=http://150-grimm.bbaw.de/start.htm |website=DWB 150th Anniversary Exhibition and Symposium|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015142342/http://150-grimm.bbaw.de/start.htm |archivedate=15 October 2015|publisher= Humboldt-Universität|year= 2004|language=de|accessdate= 27 June 2012}}</ref>

Influential authors of the 20th century include [[Gerhart Hauptmann]], [[Thomas Mann]], [[Hermann Hesse]], [[Heinrich Böll]], and [[Günter Grass]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=[[Kjell Espmark|Espmark, Kjell]] |year=2001 |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/articles/espmark/index.html |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature |publisher=Nobelprize.org |url-status=live |archivedate=26 April 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426075458/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/articles/espmark/index.html}}</ref> The German book market is the third-largest in the world, after the United States and China.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/reports/2014/IPA-annual-report-2014.pdf |accessdate=6 July 2016 |title=Annual Report |date=October 2014 |publisher=International Publishers Association |page=13 |archivedate=11 July 2016 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711214707/http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/reports/2014/IPA-annual-report-2014.pdf}}</ref> The [[Frankfurt Book Fair]] is the most important in the world for international deals and trading, with a tradition spanning over 500 years.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of the Frankfurt Book Fair |last1=Weidhaas |first1=Peter |last2=Gossage |first2=Carolyn |last3=Wright |first3=Wendy A. |year=2007 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyoffrankfu0000weid |publisher=Dundurn Press |isbn=978-1-55002-744-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyoffrankfu0000weid/page/n143 11] |url-access=registration}}</ref> The [[Leipzig Book Fair]] also retains a major position in Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dw.de/leipzig-book-fair-cultural-sideshow-with-a-serious-side/a-18313879 |title=Leipzig Book Fair: Cultural sideshow with a serious side |last=Chase |first=Jefferson |date=13 March 2015 |website=[[Deutsche Welle]] |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425203420/http://www.dw.de/leipzig-book-fair-cultural-sideshow-with-a-serious-side/a-18313879 |archivedate=25 April 2015 }}</ref>

German philosophy is historically significant: [[Gottfried Leibniz]]'s contributions to [[rationalism]]; the [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]] philosophy by [[Immanuel Kant]]; the establishment of classical [[German idealism]] by [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] and [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]]; [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]'s composition of metaphysical pessimism; the formulation of [[communist theory]] by [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]; [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s development of [[perspectivism]]; [[Gottlob Frege]]'s contributions to the dawn of [[analytic philosophy]]; [[Martin Heidegger]]'s works on Being; [[Oswald Spengler]]'s historical philosophy; and the development of the [[Frankfurt School]] have all been very influential.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy |last=Searle, John |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=1987 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref>