German SF looks back upon a history found in many other European countries: 17th and 18th-century proto-SF (such as
Somnium [The Dream] by astronomer Johannes Kepler), a first novel meeting modern SF criteria published at the beginning of the 19th century (
Ini. Ein Roman aus dem ein und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert [Ini. A Novel from the Twenty-First Century] by Julius von Voss in 1810 – eight years before Shelley’s
Frankenstein), and then an era of novels about travelling to strange and alien territories and exploring them. German SF even has its own counterpart to H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, namely Kurd Laßwitz, whose deep humanity noticeably shapes his great novel