Zusammenfassung The first part of this article is devoted to the origins of the early German translations of John Bunyan’s works that appeared until the end of the 17th century, especially his major work The Pilgrim ’ s Progress (1678, dt. Eines Christen Reise nach der Seeligen Ewigkeit 1685). By means of some textual examples it will be shown that this translation – like all other early translations of Bunyan’s works – is not based on the English original but on the Dutch translation, therefore that it is an ‘indirect translation’ which reached German by way of an intermediary language. The second part of the article first examines the general question of the proportion of indirect translations in the early modern period and then devotes itself specifically to the hitherto insufficiently considered importance of Dutch, which is hardly inferior to French as an intermediary language for indirect translations from English and even occupies first place for the field of English devotional literature of the 17th century.