This collection of essays is at the same time a reference work of previously unknown names and topics of German-language exile literature since 1933. The U.S. is one of the most important asylum countries for exiles from Germany, but also for exiles from other European countries where they were expelled by the Nazis. The book focuses on a part of German culture as it is reflected in its heteronomy due to exile in the U.S and also in parts of Central and South Americaa ' including individual biographies and their social context in history.

With its specific references to the research interests of Christoph Perels, for many years the director of the Freies Deutsches Hochstift, this festschrift in his honour reflects a range of concerns extending from the age of Goethe to the present, with emphasis on the interpretation of poetry. An additional section is dedicated to the history of the Freies Deutsches Hochstift and its collections, supplemented by publication firsts from other archives, and articles of an interdisciplinary nature relating to the history of literature and art in the age of Goethe.

The present volume has been put together in honour of Sibylle von Steinsdorff and her long record of sterling research and editorial activity in connection with the German literature of Romanticism, Biedermeier and Vormarz. Accordingly, the articles contributed here by friends and colleagues concentrate on themes and/or works from the period 1800 to 1848. They range from interpretations of individual texts to comparative overviews, source research findings and reception studies."