Schiller's plays frequently present fathers in critical constellations.1 One thinks here of the Old Moor of Die Riuber, President von Walter of Kabale und Liebe, and Octavio Piccolomini of Wallenstein. Still one is surprised by the numerous references to the Vater and by the extensive allusions in fatherly combinations as they suffuse the text of Schiller's quickly composed yet intricate, romantic tragedy Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1801). All the principal characters in the play aim to support, reinstate, or overturn the father as familial, political or theological authority. The dauphin Charles VII seeks to reclaim the throne that was lost to him as a result of the deaths in 1422 of two fathers, Henry V and Charles VI, the latter of which, referred to as a hirnverrtickten Vater2 (382), had by the Treaty of Troyes (1420) essentially denied his son the throne. The disinherited dauphin, whose armies offer only futile resistance to the English forces fighting on behalf of young Henry VI, debates whether to fight, as Count Dunois urges, for the crown of his fathers, Klimpf um deiner Viiter Krone (377). Count Dunois, as a result of Charles's ineffective leadership, is prepared to quit the latter's service and return with the delegation from Orleans to defend his own father's city-meines Vaters Stadt (385). (By contrast, the historical Dunois seems to have feared the English fortifications at Orleans and argued for a retreat from the city). Likewise, the dauphin's mother, Queen Isabeau, acts to install Henry VI on the throne of Charles's father-auf Vaters Stuhl (382). Similarly moved by the position of the father is Duke Philipp of Burgundy, who initially refuses to ally with the French forces because Du Chatel, with the encouragement of Charles VII, had earlier murdered the duke's father. The duke's desire is to avenge eines Vaters blutgen Mord (401), but he finally switches allegiance when Joan, deines Vaterlands Tochter (411), appeals to his sense of patriotism. Nearly against his will the duke accepts her rhetorical question affirming the seemingly inherent nobility of a fight for the fatherland: Was ist unschuldig,