The handbook provides detailed and knowledgeable information about the research and state of knowledge regarding Hölderlin: biography in the context of the era, prerequisites and sources of his work, poetics, analyses of the entire body of work—from the early hymns to Hyperion and the 'great' elegies and songs—reception history, influences in literature, music, and visual arts, a timeline, bibliography, and index. The various approaches to Hölderlin's work and the diversity of themes that arise from it are made transparent.