This work presents a collection of essays about German and Austrian literature and culture from the 18th century to the present. It situates texts, films, and artworks in their historical, social, philosophical, and psychological contexts, thus tracing diverse pathways to modernity from an interdisciplinary perspective. A focus is placed on the complex interrelationships between tradition and cultural innovation.

The topics of the colloquium of the International Arnim Society in the summer of 1998 were Arnim's biography, his literary and scientific writings from his childhood and student years up to the time of his travels abroad. The complexity of his intellectual life, his extensive literary production, and the breadth of his education were examined, and interconnections among various aspects of his career were revealed, especially through previously unpublished manuscripts documenting the intersection of biographical, literary, philosophical and scientific concerns.