The critical apparatus accompanying Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's posthumous poems is the first of its kind to examine all the relevant manuscripts and print editions and thus makes the editor's decisions with regard to the final form of the printed text transparent. Given Droste-Hülshoff's penchant for alternative variants and above all the frequently inconclusive state that the posthumous poems were left in, editorial decisions are unavoidable. At the same time scholarly integrity makes it imperative for the grounds of these decisions to be made explicit and hence accessible to critical inquiry. In addition, the apparatus offers greatly improved accurary in terms of the dating of the poems and also places these works in the context of Droste-Hülshoff's oeuvre as a whole.