The question of violence is one of the great questions of human history. The primal scene of violence is the biblical story of Cain and Abel and fratricide. This anthology deals with the connection between high culture and violence and was produced as part of the cooperation between the University of Bonn and the Collge de France (Ernst-Robert-Curtius Visiting Professorship). In the first part, seven contributions are devoted to the theory and history of violence in theology , medicine, political theory, philosophy, psychology and history; in the second part, six contributions deal specifically with the connection between literature and violence in the period from the 18th to the 20th century. The multidisciplinary contributions are understood as elements of a discourse history of violence.