This investigation brings to light the fundamental significance of literary form as the chief mediator of Stifter's pedagogic endeavour, an aspect so far neglected in Stifter literature. It opposes the widely held view that Stifter's pedagogic incentive is a result of the Austrian revolution of 1848. While Stifter's pedagogic thought stems primarily from his Kremsmuenster education in the spirit of Josephinism, it is his increasingly sensitive and respectful involvement of the reader's perceptive powers in conveying the import which, far beyond the expression of pedagogic design in terms of moral and social maxims, reveals Stifter's originality as a pedagogic writer.