It is the aim of this paper to examine how art - especially literature - as a system within the cultural system has been used in German literary texts starting from the Baroque era not only to depict society and the Lebenswelt as such but also to provide a means of cultural education and protection against potentially "dangerous" foreign cultural elements asumed to have a harmful effect for the whole system of Western culture. The way foreign cutures - especially Oriental cultures - have been presented in German literature over the centuries shall be examined in order to show that significant changes have taken place not only in the depiction of foreign cultural elements but also in the way how literature has worked as an educational system for Western society providing protection against exotic cultures that were suspected of having a destabilizing effect on Western culture.