Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist

Classical philology

Classical philology is the study of ancient Greek and classical Latin. Classical philology has been defined as "the careful study of the literary and philosophical texts of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds." Greek and Latin literature and civilization have traditionally been considered...

 who was born in Neudorf, near Breslau.

Wissowa studied at the University of Breslau, and in 1886 became a professor at the University of Marburg, and in 1895 a professor at the University of Halle.

Wissowa was a specialist in the study of ancient Roman religion

Religion in ancient Rome

Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...

. He is remembered today for re-edition of Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, which was an encyclopedia of classical studies started by August Friedrich Pauly (1796–1845) in 1839. In 1890 Wissowa began the new edition, an ambitious project that he anticipated would take ten years to finish. However, it wouldn't be until the 1970s that the last of its 83 volumes was published.

Another important work by Wissowa was a 1902 book on Roman religion titled Religion und Kultus der Römer, in which he explores the development of Roman religion, and provides a comprehensive description of its deities and religious practices. Wissowa also published a revision of Ludwig Friedländer

Ludwig Friedländer

Ludwig Henrich Friedlaender was a German philologist.He studied at the universities of his hometown Königsberg, Leipzig, and Berlin from 1841 to 1845...

's moral history of Rome called Sittengeschichte Roms, worked on Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher

Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher

Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher was a German classical scholar. He is best known for his Lexicon, the Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie...

's encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology, Ausführlichem Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie and edited the second edition of Marquardt's Römische Staatsverwaltung, vol. iii. (1885).