During the Middle Ages translation was king: few era's have seen so many translations as this one. German literature became a literature of translations: Latin texts that were then translated. German works of the classic era (1160-1220/1230) are transpositions or translation adaptations into German of French and Latin texts. The author discusses this phenomenon on the basis of the Novel of Alexander (Der Straßburger Alexander) dating back to the late 12th or early 13 century and examines the way in which the editor translated or adapted his Latin sources.