Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

In this volume we examine the German language. Or rather the authors who wrote in German but are here translated into English. German is most often called the language of philosophers due to its precision and clarity. However, if you’ve studied German, you will know that sentence construction can be difficult to grasp.

However, within these stories the language of these great talents express themselves in dazzling prose and searching narratives. And the characters? Clearly the works of genius.

1 - The Top 10 Short Stories - The German Language - An Introduction

2 - The New Paris by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

3 - A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

4 - The Criminal from Lost Honour by Friedrich Schiller

5 - The Song of Justice by Rainer Maria Rilke

6 - Gods in Exile by Heinrich Heine

7 - The Juniper Tree by The Brothers Grimm

8 - Twilight Alley by Stefan Zweig

9 - The Earthquake in Chile by Herbert von Kleist

10 - The Spider by Hanns Heinz Ewers

11 - The Sand-Man - Part 1 by E T A Hoffman

12 - The Sand-Man - Part 2 by E T A Hoffman