Franz Kafka's letter to his father was never answered by Hermann Kafka. This is because Kafka did not give his father the letter. His written reckoning with the overpowering father failed due to his own inability to escape from this father. Today, men respond as fathers: angrily, ironically, understandingly, and with a sense of guilt. They explain, justify themselves, and try to help. With their own experiences as fathers and sons, they tackle the delicate task: the writers Richard Anders, Alois Brandstetter, Dieter Meier-Lenz, Markus Michel, and Heinrich Ost; the Germanist Yves Gilli; the psychoanalysts Günther Bittner and Wolfgang Schmidtbauer; the publicist Harry Pross; the developmental psychologist Dieter Baacke; the translator Jörg Trobitius; and the educational scientists Johannes Gruntz-Stoll, Hartmut von Hentig, Dietmar Larcher, Jürgen Oelkers, Bernhard Rathmayr, and Christoph.