This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the literary and literature-theoretical work of Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698-1783). It draws a new profile of the proponent of the Zurich Enlightenment, revising the negative judgments of literary history. In biblical epics, political dramas and children's plays Bodmer created models of society that were based on ideals such as friendship and human kindness. He was much more radical in his pronouncements than his writing contemporaries, and he declared these models to be the political basis of every society.