How often have the feuilleton and critics declared the intellectual to be dead, and how often have they proclaimed the end of socially relevant literature? Yet, at this recent peak of global civil protest movements, writers in this country are increasingly stepping up as engaged intellectuals. In her study, Sabrina Wagner explicitly counters the frequently articulated assumption that with the end of the Cold War, the figure of the intellectual and politically engaged literature have disappeared for good. She illustrates how authors at the beginning of the 21st century act as trendsetters, opinion leaders, and shapers in the public sphere, and how they construct a political authorship, using Juli Zeh, Ilija Trojanow, and Uwe Tellkamp as examples. The individual analyses clarify how writers today adapt their roles as political authors to the changing societal conditions.