History textbooks not only tell history, but also encourage historical narration and how to deal with existing historical narratives. This makes the history textbook a medium of its own kind. However, despite a wide range of textbook research, this special feature has not yet been the focus of scientific research. However, only an understanding of history textbooks as didactic and at the same time historical-culturally integrated narrative media does justice to their own formative logic. In his dissertation, Johannes Jansen profiles a research approach that makes it possible to grasp this inherent logic analytically and to explore the complexity of the narrative structures and conditions. The research results are just as relevant for the classification and explanation of empirical findings in textbook reception research as they are for the revision and conception of history textbooks. In addition, the dissertation develops the basis for a theory of history textbooks.