From Behemoth to Godzilla, from King Kong to Gollum, Hydra and Dragoran – monsters are pervasive in the cultural imaginary. An ape the size of a skyscraper, a three-headed dog, a lioness with a human face…where no rules and standards exist, there are no monsters, or rather: everything could become monstrous. Dreaming of the abolition of the species is dreaming of a happy new world where the idea of the monster has dissolved along with the boundaries between species. As long as these boundaries still exist, we are, however, not going to get around a critique of the monstrous. How can we distinguish between monsters in the imaginary realm and in the real world? Which monsters should we fear? Which monsters do fear us? And not least: How should we deal with the monster within ourselves?