This text shows how the circulation of German-language historical novels connected readers from different parts of the world during the nineteenth century. This is achieved through a case study based on the circulation of the works of Carl Franz van der Velde (1779–1824), an author who wrote historical novels in German. Public library catalogues, newspaper advertisements and reviews published in nineteenth-century periodicals are used as sources. I conclude that van der Velde's novels underwent hundreds of editions in the nineteenth century, were favourably received by literary critics and served as an instrument of education in European countries such as France, England and Portugal, as well as beyond the Atlantic in Brazil.