In many respects Danlons Tod represents a radical departure from the drama of its time. Yet it, like any other work of art, is not without predecessors, nor did it arise in an intellectual vacuum. Much has been said, for example, about Lenz's influence on Biichner's view of art and on the structure and content of his dramas. Furthermore, one of the names most commonly linked with Biichner's is that of Christian Dietrich Grabbe, his contemporary. In their search for a relationship between these two iconoclastic forerunners of modern drama, most scholars turn to Grabbe's Napoleon. We know from Biichner's correspondence with Gutzkow that he was indeed acquainted with Grabbe's panoramic picture of the still present forces of the Revolution. Although he never admitted any indebtedness to Napoleon, there are nevertheless many obvious similarities linking the two plays, particularly in the mass scenes. Yet the protagonists of the two dramas have very little in common. The following study will, however, endeavor to show that there are just such important points of comparison between Danton and the protagonists of another, often unjustly neglected drama by Grabbe: Don Juan und Faust. These similarities, while themselves not conclusive proof of a direct influence of Grabbe's only “Ideendrama” on Biichner's more intellectual portrayal of the French Revolution, will show that Dantons Tod and Don Juan und Faust, as dissimilar as their subjects are, reflect a common approach to an acute intellectual problem of the time.