A description of Heidegger's theory of literature has yet to be written. The present study undertakes to fill the gap. It identifies models and concepts from the history of interpretation theory drawn upon by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). Heidegger's approach to literature is discussed against the background of literary studies and illuminated in terms of what it owes to the legacy of earlier literary theory. As such, it is the first study to provide a comprehensive view of the intellectual sources of Heidegger's thinking and its proximity to certain currents in the history of (literary) theory, a proximity largely unidentified hitherto, not least because of Heidegger's own overtly secessionist and anti-rationalist stance.