Wilhelm Wattenbach

Born in Holstein in 1819, he studied classical philology in Bonn, Göttingen, and Berlin, earning a doctorate before turning fully toward historical scholarship. Early in his career he worked with the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, the great editorial project for medieval German sources, which shaped much of his life's work.

He became known as a historian and palaeographer — a specialist in old handwriting and manuscripts — and later taught in Heidelberg and Berlin. His books on medieval source studies and writing in the Middle Ages were widely valued because they gave scholars practical tools for reading and judging difficult historical texts.

He is also remembered for careful source criticism. Among other work, he examined disputed medieval documents such as the so-called Austrian freedom charters, and his research helped establish him as an important authority on the written culture of the Middle Ages. He died in Frankfurt in 1897.