Political, social, technical, and cultural changes formed the context when Strauss composed a large part of his Lieder oeuvre between 1887 and 1906. The Liederabend had been established as a new concert format in the 1870s, shifting the genre’s performance environment from the private salon to the public stage, a development not without consequences for the genre itself. Strauss developed a personal style that clearly distinguished him from contemporaries such as Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, or Max Reger. Seemingly untouched by the changes of his time at first glance, Strauss nevertheless reflected current affairs in some of his Lieder. This is true in particular for the year 1918, the last year of World War I, when Strauss took up composing Lieder after a twelve-year hiatus. When the aged composer later reflected upon his role in his construction of musical and cultural history, the Lied played a significant part within this process of self-affirmation.