Ulrich Wilcken

Who was Ulrich Wilcken?

Ulrich Wilcken was a German historian and papyrologist who was a native of Stettin.

Wilcken studied ancient history and Oriental studies in Leipzig, Tübingen and Berlin. He was a disciple of historian Theodor Mommsen, who encouraged Wilcken to take a position as cataloguer of papyri following graduation. Mommsen was also instrumental in Wilcken succeeding Eduard Meyer as associate professor of ancient history at Breslau in 1889. Afterwards he was a professor at Würzburg, Halle, Leipzig and Bonn, where he succeeded Heinrich Nissen. Later he worked at Munich and Berlin, where he was successor to Otto Hirschfeld.

Wilcken was a German pioneer of Greco-Roman papyrology, and is credited for amassing an extensive archive of Ptolemaic papyri documents and ostraca.

In 1906 he became a member of the Saxon Society of Sciences, and in 1921, he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.