Whatever this book covers, whatever it is describing, it is always about a new evaluation of the familiar. In literature or in politics: when avant-garde theatre first really began to celebrate itself, Botho Strauss saw it only as boring academism. When Germany’s literary canon finally seemed to have been defined, he immediately demanded a new one that included Rudolf Borchardt and Ernst Jünger. "You can do what you want," he wrote, "at some point all forms shatter, and time runs out …"

These are the moments recorded in these essays. From here they look into the coming uncertainty, while also looking back into history. This is how "Anschwellender Bockgesang" came about, often said to be the most momentous and therefore important essay of the last 70 years: but the same can be said of this whole collection of essays.