SCIENCE FICTION ENGAGES with scientific progress and social change by imagining alternatives to the present status quo—often, but not exclusively, in future scenarios. It is a literary form that mirrors the changing human condition while at the same time it is capable of accommodating “the spatial scale and cultural heterogeneity of an entire planet.” Grounded in, and often explicitly critiquing, perceived political, social, economic, and cultural shortcomings, it confronts them with the impact of scientific and technological innovations. Freed from the shackles of realism but still working within the (remotely) possible, if not the plausible, science fiction writers and filmmakers set up thought experiments that allow their audiences glimpses of possible futures and the consequences of specific choices.

German SF builds on a broad tradition of utopian thought and the nation's calamitous history in the twentieth century. The alternative history approach has a particular appeal to German audiences because of the disastrous choices the country made in the past: the experience of hubris and the subsequent fall echo through a number of the works explored here. But Germany's experience of a totalitarian past does not have to be a permanent burden—rather, it has inoculated German SF writers who warn against the risks of ubiquitous surveillance, an uncritical adherence to the mantra of growth and progress, and the siren calls of demagogues.

German SF is distinctive because it tends to ask complex questions. Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou's Metropolis, Carl Amery's Der Untergang der Stadt Passau, and Andreas Eschbach's Die Haarteppichknüpfer explore the mentality of tyranny and subservience, while Arno Schmidt's Die Gelehrtenrepublik sarcastically reflects the madness in the strategy of “mutually assured destruction.” There is an elegiac and melancholy tone in some of the works discussed here—for example, Marlen Haushofer's Die Wand, Valerie Fritsch's Winters Garten, and Thomas von Steinaecker's Die Verteidigung des Paradieses. At the same time, German SF often assumes a more defiant, political stance, especially in critiquing capitalism. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Welt am Draht and Leif Randt's Planet Magnon offer explicit deconstructions of capitalist excesses, while social satires like Martin Burckhardt's Score and Marc-Uwe Kling's QualityLand effectively ridicule the promises of Silicon Valley.