'Historical drama' appears as the dominant genre in German literature at the beginning of the 19th century and reflects an attraction of history, that constitutes a specific 'historical culture' formulated and modulated as the complex product of sources and institutions such as historical museums, science, archeology, art and literature. In this frame the plays of authors such as Christian Dietrich Grabbe, but also a number of more unknown texts, can be seen within their relationship to a wider field of cultural and political practices.