Wolfgang Koeppen secured his place in German post-war literature as a chronicler of the Adenauer Republic with novels such as "The Greenhouse" and "Death in Rome." While he was generally appreciated by critics, he was largely ignored by readers, which ultimately hindered his greater breakthrough, not least because he was unable to produce the much-anticipated great novel. Soon, the "Koeppen case" made headlines in the cultural sections. Christian Winter outlines Koeppen's career in the literary field of the Federal Republic of Germany in his study, drawing on the cultural sociological work of Pierre Bourdieu. The various phases of his work are examined in chronological order, along with their respective literary-historical contexts. It illustrates how, starting in the late 1960s, a discourse emerged around the "silent" author.