The notion of ideology plays a crucial role in the social sciences in general and discourse studies in particular because it helps us conceptualize, problematize and understand the complex relationship between language use and power structures. In this respect, ideol- ogy analysis contributes to a holistic, multilevel and complex understanding of discourse (Shi-xu 2014). The research programs of social scientific approaches to ideology and the still emerging field of discourse studies show several similarities and parallel develop- ments. For both programs, knowledge and power, symbolic realities and their material mediation, as well as the practical production and consequences of knowledge and belief systems are at the very center of interest. During the last century researchers in both fields crossed their way, engaging in debates that enriched the understanding of ideology as a phenomenon as well as of discourse research. It could even be argued that discourse studies were founded on the shoulders of the giants of ideology research.