This article analyses the spectacular success of Daniel Kehlmann's novel, Die Vermessung der Welt (2005: Measuring the World, 2007). It argues that despite the novel's apparently learned subject matter - it follows the lives of two 19th-century scientists, Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss - it draws on markedly 21st century processes of celebrity, both in respect of how the characters are presented and in terms of textual strategiesdirected towards the reader.This close textual reading is put into the context of Daniel Kehlmann's own sudden celebrification as the novel topped the bestseller lists in Germany for 35 consecutive weeks and was subsequently translated into over 40 languages.