Although they have yet to be treated together in a comparative study Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Carl Sternheim had a number of points of convergence in their respective searches for a modern form for the serious comedy. This study documents the collegial relationship between the two authors in part with previously unpublished archival material analyses their respective treatments of Molieres comedies and places this in the context of Molieres reception in the Germanspeaking countries since the 17th century. What emerges is a new view of the comedies of Hofmannsthal and Sternheim which sees both dramatists applying the same technique of countermodelling Molieres constellations of comedic figures a modern critical reappraisal of the traditional comedic type character.