Often considered an Anglo-American and French phenomenon, the detective story is now known to have been German as well, at least since Adolph Mullner's 1828 novella The Caliber--published 13
years before Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders of the Rue Morgue." The Germanic stories, however, were neglected by German and Austrian academics with literary-canonical predilections, dismissed by
self-important Anglo-American scholars, and suppressed by National Socialists. Now, as scholars reexamine noncanonical works in all genres, these stories arise newly appraised and appreciated
by critics and readers at last have access to the Germanic contemporaries of Poe, Gaboriau and Conan Doyle. This book includes parts of six translated detective novels and novellas originally
published between 1828 and 1909. The selection includes one story each by Adolph Mullner, Otto Ludwig, Adolf Streckfuss, Auguste Groner, Maximilian Bottcher and Balduin Groller. Each story is
preceded by a one-page biographical sketch of the author, and a general introduction covers the literary development of the genre and briefly examines the critical history and the
sociohistorical value of the German-language stories.
