The study deals with the research papers written by Uwe Johnson during his German studies (1952-1956): What do these elaborations reveal about the early literary and, in part, life-world socialization of the later author of world renown? The surviving student works are examined in terms of the subjects they deal with and the methods used to develop and present them, while also always taking into account the contemporary conditions and the (literary-political) circumstances of the period under consideration that constituted them. On the one hand, these works have their own significance as analytical-essayistic studies of literature, and on the other hand, they provide the first indications of later authorship, of a 'life in literature'.