Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur. Ein Handbuch in 2 Bänden

Johannes Scherr published his two-volume Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur in the mid-19th century as a comprehensive effort to catalog global literary movements. Writing during a period of intense German intellectual fervor, Scherr intended the work to serve as a foundational handbuch for students and educated laypeople who sought a structured overview of literary development from antiquity to his contemporary era.

The design of the work reflects the encyclopedic ambitions of Victorian-era German scholarship, characterized by dense, analytical prose and a thematic organization that emphasizes the evolution of national literatures. While Scherr’s narrative style was noted for its distinctively opinionated and often idiosyncratic perspective on artistic progress, the volumes were widely regarded as standard reference material for their clear synthesis of massive historical data.