August Wilmanns (25 March 1833,

Vegesack Vegesack is a northern district of Bremen, the capital of the Germany , German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen). Geography ''Vegesack'' is located about north from the centre of Brem ...

– 27 October 1917,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a German

classical philologist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

and

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

. He studied classical philology at the Universities of

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, receiving his doctorate in 1863 with a dissertation on the Roman scholar

Marcus Terentius Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

. In 1870 he began work as a librarian at the '' Universitätsbibliothek'' in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, followed by professorships at the Universities of

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

(1871) and

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

(1873). In 1874 he was named ''Oberbibliothekar'' (head librarian) at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

, shortly afterwards, given the same title at the '' Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek'' in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

(1875). From 1886 to 1914 he was general director of the '' Königliche Bibliothek'' (Royal Library) in Berlin, where he was successor to

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...

. During his tenure at Berlin, he was credited with conducting a comprehensive reorganization of the library. In 1895 he established a ''Gesamtkatalog'' (centralized catalog), initially for Prussia, later being extended to include research libraries in all German-speaking countries.

Selected published works

* "De M. Terentii Varronis libris delingua latina", 1863 (dissertation thesis). * "De M. Terenti Varronis libris grammaticis", 1864. * ''Placidus, Papias und andere lateinische Glossare'', 1869 (with

Hermann Usener Hermann Karl Usener (23 October 1834 – 21 October 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion. Life Hermann Usener was born at Weilburg and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at Heidelberg ...

). * ''Verzeichniss der von der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin erworbenen Meermann-Handschriften des Sir Thomas Phillipps'', 1892 – Directory of the Royal Library in Berlin in regards to the acquired Meerman manuscripts of Sir

Thomas Phillipps Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (2 July 1792 – 6 February 1872), was an English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. He was an illegitimate son of a textile manufactu ...

. * ''Beiträge zur Bücherkunde und Philologie'', 1903 – Contribution to

library science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

and

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

.OCLC WorldCat
published works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilmanns, August 1833 births 1917 deaths Writers from Bremen (city) Academic staff of the University of Kiel Academic staff of the University of Innsbruck Academic staff of the University of Königsberg University of Bonn alumni University of Tübingen alumni German classical philologists 19th-century German librarians 20th-century German librarians