This article analyses different forms of self-reference in Otfried Preußler’s Die Flucht nach Ägypten (The Flight into Egypt, 1978). Along with intertextual references, which primarily refer to the arts of the Early Modern period, the biographical references in the novel are also analysed. One hypothesis is that the novel focuses on the unavailability of the past: Although the past is visualised, the power of narration is limited. The article attempts to demonstrate this limit in several passages of the text, with some references to Preußler’s poetics.