Media revolutions awaken longings for the authentic. Literature and art react by turning to the facts, the action and the moment and by pretending to be life. The historical avant-garde movements, which were exemplary for much of the aesthetics around 1970, testify to this. This study explores the history and theory of aesthetics from Nietzsche to Adorno and shows examples of authenticity in various art forms (documentary literature, performance art, autobiography, narrative, collage) as an aesthetic effect.