This extensive history of the legendary literary journal,“Sinn und Form”, also offers the first systematic analysis of this key type of cultural institution. The study is organised in seven“anatomical” categories: founding conception; cultural-political context; institutional infrastructure; role of editors; networks of contributors; text and composition; readership and reception. Informed by Bourdieu’s sociology of culture, this typology opens the way for comparative research into the function of literary journals, integrating sociological and literary approaches.