Johannes Brahms wrote his German Requiem in 1866. The first complete performance of the work took place at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 18 February 1869, after various individual movements had been performed in Vienna, Bremen and Zurich.

Breitkopf & Härtel first published the work (with score, choral and orchestral parts, and the composer's own piano-vocal score) in the Brahms Complete Edition (1926-28), which was under the scholarly supervision of Eusebius Mandyczewski and Hans Gál and published on behalf of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.