The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of using fictional texts, which focus on the topic of politeness, for interculturally oriented lessons of German as a foreign language. The advantages of this material are that strategies of politeness are invariably contextualized culturally and socially, thus offering students an opportunity to understand them linguistically, specifically, and in their broader cultural relationships. Through the use of significant text excerpts several didactic possibilities are offered; their function is to increase understanding of the phenomena of politeness and to teach/increase linguistic competence in this direction.