Der Kanon or more precisely Marcel-Reich-Ranickis Kanon is a large anthology of exemplary works of German literature. Edited by the literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki, he called the anthology, announced, on June 18, 2001 in the German news magazine Der Spiegel under the title "The Canon of worthwhile German Works", his magnum opus. The five parts appeared from 2002 to 2006 published by Insel Verlag: 1. Novels (2002), 2. Tales/Stories (2003), 3. Dramatic Works (2004), 4. Poetry (2005), and 5. Essays (2006). As expected, the anthology met with opposition and criticism, and even the idea of an anthology was questioned, but Reich-Ranicki called this questioning "incomprehensible, because the lack of a canon would mean relapse into barbarism. Reich-Ranicki sought to differentiate his anthology from previous compilations in his hope to imagine a "reader judge" such as teachers, students, librarians, who would need to draw from this canon because they were in the "first line of those who deal with literature professionally."
The edited anthology takes the series title, Der Kanon. Die deutsche Literatur (The Canon of German Literature) in book form with slip cases.
Der Kanon. Die deutsche Literatur. Romane. 20 Volumes (2002), ISBN 3-458-06678-0
Der Kanon. Die deutsche Literatur. Erzählungen. 10 Volumes and 1 Companion Volume (2003), ISBN 3-458-06760-4
Der Kanon. Die deutsche Literatur. Dramen. 8 Volumes and 1 Companion Volume (2004), ISBN 3-458-06780-9
Der Kanon. Die deutsche Literatur. Gedichte. 7 Volumes and 1 Companion Volume (2005), ISBN 3-458-06785-X
Der Kanon. Die deutsche Literatur. Essays. 5 Volumes und 1 Companion Volume (2006), ISBN 3-458-06830-9
The Nibelungenlied
Walter von der Vogelweide: Poems
Martin Luther, trans.: The Bible (excerpts)
Andreas Gryphius: Poems
Christian Hofmann von Hofmannswaldau: Poems
Johann Christian Günther: Poems
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Minna von Barnhelm; Hamburgische Dramaturgie (excerpts); Nathan der Weise
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers; Faust I; Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (excerpts); Poems
Friedrich Schiller: Kabale und Liebe "or" Maria Stuart; Die Schaubühne als eine moralische Anstalt Betrachtet (The Theatre considered as a Moral Institution) (excerpts), Don Carlos; on Naive and Sentimental Poetry, Wallenstein, Ballads.
Johann Peter Hebel: Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes (selections)
Friedrich Hölderlin: Hyperion oder der Eremit in Griechenland (excerpts); Poems
Novalis: Poems
Friedrich von Schlegel: Essays
E. T. A. Hoffmann: Die Serapionsbrüder (excerpts)
Heinrich von Kleist: The Marquise of O, Michael Kohlhaas; The Prince of Homburg; Short Stories (selected)
Clemens Brentano: Poems
Adelbert von Chamisso: Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff: Poems
Ferdinand Raimund: Der Verschwender
August Graf von Platen: Poems
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff: Die Judenbuche; Poems
Heinrich Heine: Poems; Prose (selected)
Eduard Mörike: Poems
Georg Büchner: Dantons Tod; Woyzeck; Lenz (fragment)
Theodor Storm: Short Stories (selected)
Gottfried Keller: Short Stories (selected)
Theodor Fontane: Schach von Wuthenow; Frau Jenny Treibel „or“ Der Stechlin; Effi Briest
Friedrich Nietzsche: Essays
Arthur Schnitzler: La Ronde; Leutnant Gustl; Professor Bernhardi
Gerhart Hauptmann: Die Ratten
Frank Wedekind: Frühlings Erwachen
Stefan George: Poems
Else Lasker-Schüler: Poems
Heinrich Mann: Professor Unrat
Christian Morgenstern: Gedichte
Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Der Schwierige
Karl Kraus: Essays
Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks; Tonio Kröger; Tristan; Der Tod in Venedig; Mario und der Zauberer; Essays
Rainer Maria Rilke: Poems
Hermann Hesse: Unterm Rad
Carl Sternheim: Der Snob
Robert Walser: Jakob von Gunten; Erzählungen
Alfred Döblin: Die Ermordung einer Butterblume; Berlin Alexanderplatz
Robert Musil: Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß; Tonka
Franz Kafka: Der Process; Die Verwandlung; Ein Bericht für eine Akademie; In der Strafkolonie; Ein Hungerkünstler
Gottfried Benn: Poems
Georg Heym: Poems
Georg Trakl: Poems
Kurt Tucholsky: Feuilletons
Joseph Roth: Radetzkymarsch; Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker; Stationschef Fallmerayer; Short Stories
Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder; Leben des Galilei; Kalendergeschichten (selections); Poems
Erich Kästner: Gedichte
Anna Seghers: Das siebte Kreuz; Der Ausflug der toten Mädchen
Ödön von Horváth: Kasimir und Karoline
Peter Huchel: Poems
Wolfgang Koeppen: Tauben im Gras
Günter Eich: Poems
Max Frisch: Diary (excerpts); Homo faber; Biedermann und die Brandstifter; Montauk
Arno Schmidt: Die Umsiedler; Seelandschaft mit Pocahontas
Peter Weiss: Marat/Sade
Heinrich Böll: Der Mann mit den Messern; Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa...; Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen
Paul Celan: Poems
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Die Panne
Ernst Jandl: Poems
Ingeborg Bachmann: Poems
Günter Grass: Die Blechtrommel (auszugsweise); Cat and Mouse
Peter Rühmkorf: Poems
Hans Magnus Enzensberger: Poems
Thomas Bernhard: Holzfällen; Wittgensteins Neffe – Eine Freundschaft
Uwe Johnson: Mutmassungen über Jakob (excerpts)
Sarah Kirsch: Poems
Wolf Biermann: Poems
Jurek Becker: Jacob the Liar
Robert Gernhardt: Poems
180 Novellas, short Stories, Parables, Fairy Tales, Legends, and Kalendergeschichte.
The series of "essays" gave Reich-Ranicki much "grief." Even the choice of the title "essays" was hotly debated. Reich-Ranicki included not just essays in a classic sense, but also a wide variety of critical works including criticism of film, literature, music reviews, theater reviews, essays, speeches, diaries, letters, ephemera, and aphorisms, spanning both fictional and nonfictional literature. The term "essayistic" was coined for this purpose.
The "essay" canon contains 255 articles from 166 authors covering a wide variety of subject matter. It is divided into five parts:
from Martin Luther to Arthur Schopenhauer
from Leopold von Ranke to Rosa Luxemburg
from Heinrich Mann to Joseph Roth
from Bertold Brecht to Golo Mann
from Max Frisch to Durs Grünbein
In 2015, the author Hannes Bajohr published his "novel" Durchschnitt (Average) based on Reich-Ranicki's novel canon. For his book, he analyzed the texts of the twenty volume novel-box of the series, calculated their average sentence length (18 words), and, with the help of a computer script, generated a book that only contained these average sentences. He then sorted them alphabetically in chapters according to the letters of the alphabet.