Abstract Scholars have long considered Heinrich Wölfflin a pioneer in ‘Baroque studies’. Surprisingly little attention has been paid, however, to typological patterns and their importance for revising a classic-biased historiography. Reassessing the ‘invention’ of ‘Baroque’ literature and civilization in German literary criticism before, during and immediately after the First World War involves 1) outlining the interdisciplinary conditions and impulses that mark the beginning of ‘Baroque studies’ (before 1900), 2) examining closely the structure of typological approaches (1900–1933), and 3) discussing the problems of ‘Baroque form’ and ‘style’, as well as their anthropological derivatives. Early-twentieth-century critics furthered the invention of a ‘Baroque man’ to describe and to legitimize themselves.