Books like Eine Jugend in Deutschland by Ernst Toller

A German World War I trainee, Paul Bäumer, documents his disillusionment as the war destroys his classmates’ idealism and forces him to confront the futility of combat.

Hermann Hesse’s Der Steppenwolf follows an alienated intellectual who, after confronting despair, discovers a path toward self‑transcendence and renewed appreciation of life.

A gritty portrait of a former convict navigating the chaotic streets of Weimar Berlin, where crime, politics, and economic hardship collide.

"The extraordinary story of one of the most fruitful friendships in modern arts and letters. Paris, 1902: Renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin has just completed The Thinker. Rainer Maria Rilke is a delicate young visitor from Prague, broke and suffering from a case of writer's block. When Rilke is commissioned to write a book about Rodin, everything changes. ... You Must Change Your Life reveals one of the great stories of modern art and literature: Rodin and Rilke's years together as master and disciple, their heartbreaking rift, and ultimately their moving reconciliation. In her vibrant debut, Rachel Corbett reveals how Rodin's influence led Rilke to write his most celebrated poems and inspired his beloved Letters to a Young Poet. She captures the dawn of modernism with appearances by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Lou Andreas-Salomé, George Bernard Shaw, and Jean Cocteau. And she recounts the remarkable friendship of two extraordinary artists whose work continues to reverberate a century later."--