Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann

Born in Danzig on September 18, 1822, Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann became a remarkably wide-ranging scholar: historian, linguist, mathematician, librarian, and later director of the Saxon State Library in Dresden. He is especially remembered as an important early figure in German onomastics—the study of names—and for his work on folk etymology.

Förstemann is also noted for pioneering research on Maya manuscripts at a time when that field was still in its infancy. His studies of the Dresden Codex helped establish him as one of the key European scholars working on ancient Mesoamerican texts in the late 19th century.

He died in Charlottenburg on November 4, 1906. What makes his legacy stand out is the unusual range of his interests: he brought the habits of a careful librarian together with the curiosity of a linguist and the precision of a mathematician.