Though more than 100 years old Möller's Hieratische Paläographie still is the standard reference work for palaeographic questions. Parts of this palaeography could be complemented and replaced by studies concentrating on specific times spans or sources, but a systematic study of the hieratic script covering all time spans of Egyptian history is - for many reasons - still missing. This working paper sums up the different aspects discussed in the paper given in the conference m.a.