Volumes 17 to 19 of Christian Weise s Complete Works present what are known as his political novels The novels are highly significant for the history both of the genre and of society Weise composed them as symbols of his political philosophy and wrote them for the training of the new caste of bourgeois officials who had to behave skilfully i e politically in the service of the courts The four novels are of central importance for Middle German literature in the second half of the 17th century