The Bildungsroman as a genre -- Wieland: Agathon (1767) -- Goethe: Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship (1795-1796) -- Stifter: Indian summer (1857) -- Keller: Green henry (1879-1880) -- Mann: The magic mountain (1924) -- Hesse: The glass bead game (1943) -- Conclusion: The Bildungsroman as a taxonomic genre.