Probably no other postwar artist has had such an impact on our cultural and social values as Joseph Beuys and his work. He participated in documenta in Kassel five times between 1964 and 1982 and never failed to cause a stir with his sculptures, actions and installations. The aim of this book is not to reconstruct the various stages of his documenta works - "Queen bee" at documenta 3, "Room sculpture" at documenta 4, the "Office for direct democracy" at documenta 5, the "Honey pump at the workplace" at documenta 6 and finally the largest "social sculpture", the "7000 oaks" at documenta 7 - but to offer an in- depth documentation with a rich variety of rough drafts, sketches, handwritten notes, photos, previously unpublished interviews and above all, essays on his entire oeuvre and the individual documenta contributions.