The journal was established in 1841 by Moriz Haupt as the Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum (older spelling) with the objective of applying the same rigour to the philology and textual criticism of medieval German texts as was already current with Greek and Latin.

[6] Haupt wrote a statement of purpose in the first issue in which he set out the journal's range: "the literature, language, customs, legal history [and] belief of German antiquity".

[11] The major focus from the beginning was publishing editions of Old and Middle High German works, which were presented for the most part for an academic readership, without explanatory material.

The foundation of the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie in 1868 was also a reaction to the ZfdA's restricted focus, in its case intended to supplement it.

Until the end of World War II, the editor was traditionally the Chairman of the Faculty of Germanistik at the University of Berlin.