How does literature function when it comes into the focus of state cultural policy? In five case studies, Pawel Zajas explores the tense relationship between aesthetic autonomy and political instrumentalisation between 1914 and 1989. Drawing on extensive archival sources, this volume shows how literary production, translation, international book fairs and artists' residencies were incorporated into German foreign cultural policy strategies - and how literary actors simultaneously used, reflected and subverted these interventions.