"Finally, one was someone. Where everything lay in ruins, only the words shone." What Günter Grass articulates in his baroque novel 'Das Treffen in Telgte' serves as the starting point for this opulent reader: the emerging self-awareness of German literature in the 17th century. In contrast to the popularity of baroque palaces and operas, the literature of this era has largely been forgotten. Yet, we encounter it as the Other of our modernity, which, while determinative for our cultural development and knowledge, is also extremely distant from us. Bringing this Other, in its fascinating diversity, into focus and thereby shedding new light on the seemingly familiar aspects of the Baroque is one of the central aims of this volume, which gathers all texts relevant for school and study in their original wording, including many important cultural texts on the sidelines.