First published in 1804/05 under the pseudonym Bonaventura, the unusual text bearing the simple title "Nachtwachen" remains - despite the recently established idenification of August Klingemann as the book's author- one of the most elusive works of German fiction. Drawing on the philosophy of Heidegger, this study attempts to interpret one of German literature's most unusual works in a manner which does justice to the radicality of its vision.§In the course of investigating the "Nachtwachen", new light is also shed on Heidegger. Several of his concepts and phraseologies, which on their own appear obscure and utterly idiosyncratic, turn out, when read in relation to the "Nachtwachen", to be unexpectedly meaningful and relevant, a fact ultimately causing us to reconsider the profound extent to which Heidegger's thinking was rooted in and remained consonant with German intellectual tradition.