The notion of ‚Weltliteratur‘ (world literature) promoted by Goethe in the early 19th century was subject to an important renewal in the context of German Expressionism. In this context, the advancement of Weltliteratur conveyed a distinct anti-military stance. In the midst of World War I, Franz Pfemfert lanced several special numbers of his journal ‚Die Aktion‘ dedicated to literary authors and works of other European countries, in particular from those at war with Germany. In the postwar period this interest in Weltliteratur was taken up and further developed by poets like Ivan Goll who, in his famous anthology ‚Les Cinq Continents‘, aimed to forward this concept and put it into practice by means of translation.