Since its beginnings, German Science Fiction (or SF) has engaged with social change and technological progress, often drawing from utopian thought. The writer Kurd Lawitz challenged the authoritarian Wilhelmine order; later, filmdirector Fritz Lang provided a searing critique of Weimar society. Meanwhile utopian thinkers like Ernst Bloch and Herbert Marcuse insisted on the possibility of hope, even in the face of totalitarianism. During the Cold War, German utopian writing and filmmaking were vital both as a warning and as a creative imagining of possible futures. More recently, as rapid scientific and technological advances have continued, literary and cinematic responses have become increasingly dystopian in outlook, reflecting fears connected with globalization, advances in artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, and persistent challenges like climate change, hunger, migration, and terrorism. This book explores German SF's responses to the question how humanity can match technological advances with social, ethical, and moral progress. It surveys German utopian thought and the German SF tradition-both literary andcinematic-providing close readings of selected works that paradoxically reflect boundless optimism for the possibility of change and increasing pessimism in its likelihood. English translations are provided throughout. Building onits rich tradition but now confidently entering the mainstream, German SF attempts Zukunftsbewältigung: coping with an uncertain but also unwritten future. Ingo Cornils is Professor of German Studies at the University of Leeds.

Note on the TranslationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I.The Great Discourse on the FutureUtopians and Utopian ThoughtFuturists and Futures StudiesUtopian/Dystopian Writers and Utopian/Dystopian FictionScience Fiction: The Nexus of Utopianism, Futurism, and Utopian FictionPart II. German Science Fiction in the Twentieth and Twenty-First CenturiesSome Preliminary Thoughts on German Science FictionFirst Contact: Martians, Sentient Plants, and Swarm IntelligencesThe Shock of the New: Mega Cities, Machines, and RocketsUtopian Experiments: Island Idylls, Glass Beads, and Eugenic NightmaresTo the Stars!: Cosmic Supermen and Bauhaus in SpaceVisions of the End: Catastrophism and Moral EntropyVirtual Realities: Caught in the MatrixAlternative Histories: Into the Heart of DarknessBig Brother is Watching Us: Who is Watching Big Brother?Artificial Intelligences: The Rise of the Thinking MachinesEternal Life: At What Cost?Social Satires: Of Empty Slogans and Empty HeartsCritical Posthumanism: Twilight of the Species or a New Dawn?High Concept: Time, the Universe, and EverythingConclusionAppendix 1: Chronological List of German SF Novels-A SelectionAppendix 2: Chronological List of German SF Films-A SelectionNotesBibliographyIndex