Philipp Otto Runge was - next to Caspar David Friedrich - not only the most important German painter of the early romantic period, but also one of the most versatile artists of the 19th century. His letters are presented and commented in this critical edition. For the first time, the present volumes offer all of his letter testimonies and present the sources preserved in the autograph in a text-cri-tical manner in accordance with edition-scientific criteria.