The essay tries to show that Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby is influenced by Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and reacts to it. While there is no explicit proof in Dickens’ letters that he read Goethe’s novel, Dickens’ admiration for Carlyle, the translator of the novel, and his interest in contemporary German literature render such a knowledge not improbable, even before one looks at his novels. But the parallels between particularly the second book of Goethe’s “Meister” and Nicholas’ liberation of and care for Smike are so detailed that an influence is extremely likely, the more so as an interest in a mentally retarded human being is not a common topic in English literature before Dickens. Dickens, however, also criticizes Goethe, for his Nicholas remains faithful to Smike till his death.