Ambiguities of Care in Nineteenth-Century German Literature foregrounds the complexities of care and caregiving practices in German lands during the long nineteenth century. By tracing key moments in the historical development of care in this context, this volume examines how understandings and practices of care are historically and culturally contingent and always bound to a sense of community. Through ten case studies offering close readings of German literature, theoretical texts, and visual culture, this volume puts care studies scholarship in dialogue with diverse areas of interdisciplinary inquiry. It shows how broadly the term care was applied, how its meaning shifted in the nineteenth century, and what impact this has on our use of the concept today. This book complicates our understanding of how care can both create and maintain relationships and communities at the same time that it disrupts and even destroys them. By attending to the conceptual richness and ambiguities of care and caregiving practices, this volume argues that care in nineteenth-century German literature opens up new pathways for expanding the field of care studies.