Abstract: The present article examines Schiller’s reflexions on language in general and national language in particular, as well as their reception in the course of the 19th century, especially by Jacob Grimm. Grimm’s attempt to anticipate national unity for Germany by realising a unified German national language is a radicalisation and simplification – a perversion, even – of Schiller’s position: the abstract promise of a unity through language, which Schiller only alludes to, is transformed into an explicit concretisation of national unity by Grimm.