In the early 19th century the Nazarenes were the first generation of German painters to address medieval topics intensively from their own artistic impulse and a spiritual urge. Finally breaking away from the Vienna Academy, in 1809 the Lukasbund was founded as the nucleus of the Nazarene movement, with >truth< becoming its watchword. Following the writings of Wackenroder, Tieck and Schlegel, Italian paintings from the Middle Ages to the early works of Raphael and the old German masters became their paradigms. A first approach to the Middle Ages was found in the popular historical romances and historical novels that were received by many contemporaries like works of historical science. Soon, however, the romantic and fantastic universe of fiction did not suffice any more, which prompted more detailed studies. In particular, Johann von Müller’s Geschichten der Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft (Tales of the Swiss Confederation), which formed a novel connection of meticulous research with lively literary depiction closely based on the historical sources, satisfied their growing historical awareness. Besides increasingly thorough literary studies, they engaged themselves with individual lines of research, for example concerning historical costume or art monuments. At the same time, however, they shared the contemporary fascination for myths, legends and folklore so characteristic of this early phase of Historicism. Nazarene history painting in its genesis and stylistic characteristics clearly mirrors the change in the conception of history from the Enlightenment to Romanticism and Historicism in Germany. It spotlights the fierce and intense discussion about the range of notions of >truth< in the context of art and history which was to become so fundamental for the later 19th century.