Ulrich Wilcken
Ulrich Wilcken was a German historian and papyrologist who was a native of Stettin.
Biography
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 the University of Breslau in 1889. Afterwards, he was a professor at the universities of Würzburg, Halle, Leipzig and Bonn, where he succeeded Heinrich Nissen. Later on, he served as a professor 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.