The German Refugees

The German Refugees
AuthorJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
Original titleUnterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten
LanguageGerman
PublisherDie Horen
Publication date
1795
Publication placeGermany

The German Refugees (German: Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten, lit.'Conversations of German Emigrants') is a 1795 short story collection by the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It consists of a frame story where a group of German nobles have escaped the violence of the French Revolution and entertain themselves by telling stories in the countryside. In addition to the frame narrative, the collection contains seven stories and ends with the longest and most famous, "The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily" ("Das Märchen").

Goethe wrote the stories in the winter of 1794 while he worked on Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. The concept was modelled on The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. The stories were originally published in Friedrich Schiller's journal Die Horen in 1795.