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.