Particularly in the second half of the 20th century, historical approaches became relevant in science education. This development can at least in part be explained with the growing awareness of the importance to address Nature of Science aspects in science education. In comparison to the international publications, some particularities can be identified in Germany. Most notably, using historical approaches is mainly limited to the field of physics education, only few approaches can be found in chemistry and hardly any in biology education. Moreover, several approaches have been realized which use historical experiments in educational settings. This paper gives an overall analysis of the historical approaches and their role in German science education as well as some insights into current approaches.