This study has undertaken to investigate the reception of Christian Dietrich Grabbe’s tragedy, Hannibal, in the German theatre. Before the main topic could be approached, an outline needed to be provided in an expositional part of the genesis of the drama and the history of its publication; for the appearance and publication of the text marks the beginning of any reception process. The thesis is divided into two major parts. The first deals with the adaptations of the drama, prepared with theatrical portrayal in mind. These act as a bridge between the original text and its realization in the theatre. The second part is devoted to the productions as seen mainly through the eyes of theatre critics who are able to give some permanence to a transitory experience by capturing it in writing. Between 1901 and 1940, there were five printed adaptations of Hannibal: those of Spielmann (1901), Kilian (1919), Jessner (1926), Martin (1940), and Haas (1940). The adaptors themselves were recipients and created examples of productive reception which were able to be passed on to the public by way of the theatre. The adaptors all encountered similar problems when confronted with Grabbe’s original, and to make the drama suitable for the stage, the structure had to be modified, lists of dramatis personae given and stage directions altered or added. A sixth adaptation was that of Brecht who began to prepare it for the Deutsches Theater, Berlin. It remained a fragment but shows that he wished to diverge from, rather than conform to, the original. The adaptations performed were those of Kilian, Jessner, Martin, and Haas. The productions of Hannibal spanned the period from 1916 till 1958, after which time the tragedy seems to have been ignored by the German theatre. The main aim of this part is to make use of critiques as a method of obtaining an impression of individual presentations and any special tendencies in interpretation and particular dramaturgical problems or trends. Apart from the 1916 portrayal, the productions have been arranged into three groups: those from 1918 to 1932, 1933 to 1945, and 1946 to the present day. From each group, two major productions have been regarded closely. Further productions have been dealt with more briefly at the end of each section. Receptive comments reveal that the presentations were usually understood in the context of the political, ideological, or philosophical climate of the time. The work placed enormous strains on the theatre. Innovative technological solutions had to be found to ensure fluency of action, and an outstanding actor was required for the title hero who was played by some of the greatest actors on the German stage: Steinrueck, Krauss, George, Meinecke, Schieske, and Zeidler. Whilst the drama was played on a number of occasions during the 1920s, it experienced its heyday in the theatre in the Nazi period and appeared at National Socialist festivals held in honour of the dramatist. Grabbe was repudiated in the years immediately after the war and the revival of interest in Hannibal in the 1950s was shown to be limited and apparently short-lived. To give a visual aid to the reader, I have included documentation at the end of my thesis in the form of a table of all productions, a play-bill for each of the six major ones, and photos of stage settings and leading and supporting actors.