In a number of contemporary German novels, animals are an integral part of the human condition, rather than just mankind’s Other, or a device that serves to foreground a human profile by being anything but human. In his 2008 novel, ‚Kaltenburg‘, Marcel Beyer explores differences between humans and animals by looking at interdependence, interaction, and witnesses to a shared history, thereby casting aside established subject and object roles. In Dietmar Dath’s novel of the same year, Die ‚Abschaffung der Arten‘, animals are presented as a technological and scientific project. Technology – and genetics in particular – enables humans to create animals, which are viewed as their extension. In Dath’s world, evolution is intention; Darwin meets Marx. In both these books, human beings are dynamic elements of a multifaceted network encompassing both ‘nature’ and ‘culture.’