Historians today can draw on a well-filled methodological toolbox. Since the establish-ment of social history as a "historical social science" in the 1970s, this has included not only qualitative-hermeneutic approaches but also quantitative-statistical methods. Many sources at least permit a quantitative approach to analysis; others (e.g. mass data) cannot be evaluated profitably at all without the application of appropriate methods. But to what extent is (has been) the use of quantitative methods actually widespread in German-language historical studies? While the use of statistical methods has in principle become much easier since the days of the "Bielefeld School" due to increasingly powerful and at the same time user-friendly software, quantitative approaches seem to be widespread in only a few historical sub-disciplines. One reason could be the skepticism towards quantitative methods on the part of representatives of the "New Cultural History". However, empirical research on this aspect of scientific history is scarce. Our study would like to close this research gap to a certain extent. To this end, we have collected a comprehensive corpus of journals (including Historische Zeitschrift), which allows us to determine the extent of quantitative work in German-language history for the period 1951-2016. We argue both quantitatively and qualitatively, combining a simple "counting approach" (counting the tables and graphs in all the journals surveyed) with a more complex lexicographical approach. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that the cultural turn reversed the emerging trend towards more quantification in parts of history. However, the determination of the "business cycle of quantification" also holds some surprises.