Arno Schmidt was the first writer to make the divided Germany a literary theme with his novel "The Stony Heart," even before Uwe Johnson. Although the story about the machinations of a book collector was already published in a sexually, politically, and religiously toned-down version, the German literary criticism exclaimed in horror: "God protect German literature!" As part of the Bargfelder edition, one of the most entertaining and linguistically powerful novels of post-war literature is presented here for the first time in its uncensored version. The two capriccios "Tina" (1956) and "Goethe" (1957) - charming pieces in which one travels through a poster column in Darmstadt directly to an underground Elysium of not-so-dead poets or learns about a nighttime visit from Goethe to his colleague Schmidt - were referred to by Arno Schmidt as "satyr plays of empty hours.".