<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> 1989 marks the end of post-war literature in Germany. Yet, where is the historical locus of contemporary literature? Unlike attempts to situate contemporary literature in terms of historical events, the present study attempts to develop a structural history based on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the “literary field”, thereby shedding light on the long road to the genesis of contemporary literature since the 1960s.