Wilhelm Engelmann was a German publisher and bookseller (August 1, 1808 in Lemgo - December 23, 1878 in Leipzig).

Engelmann was the son of a bookseller in Lemgo

Lemgo

Lemgo is a city in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of c. 42,000.It was founded in the 12th century by Bernhard II at the crossroad of two merchant routes. Lemgo was a member of the Hanseatic League, a medieval trading association of free cities in several...

, who later moved to Leipzig. He attended Leipzig's Thomasschule

Thomasschule zu Leipzig

St. Thomas School, Leipzig is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools in the world.St. Thomas is known for its art, language and music education...

 and planned an academic career, but was forced to early self-reliance by the early death of his father. He learnt the business from bookseller Theodore Enslin

Theodore Enslin

Theodore Vernon Enslin was an American poet associated with Cid Corman's Origin and press. He is widely regarded as one of the most musical of American avant-garde poets. Enslin was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. His father was a biblical scholar and his mother a Latin scholar...

 and acquired many valuable business contacts. Subsequently Engelsmann worked for Johann Georg Heyse in Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

, where he was also concerned with printing, and later for Carl Gerold in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and at Varrentrappstrasse in Frankfurt am Main.

In 1833 he returned to Leipzig and took over the business of his father. His acquaintances in the scientific community gave him a quick start. He publications focused on medicine, history and philology, including works of Georg Gottfried Gervinus

Georg Gottfried Gervinus

Georg Gottfried Gervinus was a German literary and political historian.-Biography:Gervinus was born in Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he became a student of the university of Giessen...

, Georg Weber

Georg Weber (historian)

Georg Weber was a German historian. He studied at Erlangen. In 1839, he became a teacher in the high school of Heidelberg, and from 1848 to 1872 was its director...

, Joachim Heusinger of Waldegg and Albert von Kölliker

Albert von Kölliker

Albert von Kölliker was a Swiss anatomist and physiologist.-Biography:Albert Kölliker was born in Zurich, Switzerland. His early education was carried on in Zurich, and he entered the university there in 1836...

. An important series was the Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum, a bibliography of classical philology from 1700 until his death in 1878, followed by Johann Albert Fabricius

Johann Albert Fabricius

Johann Albert Fabricius was a German classical scholar and bibliographer.-Biography:Fabricius was born at Leipzig, son of Werner Fabricius, director of music in the church of St. Paul at Leipzig, who was the author of several works, the most important being Deliciae Harmonicae...

's Bibliotheca Graeca, Bibliotheca Latina and Bibliotheca Latina Media et Infimae Aetatis.In 1861 he published Bibliotheca zoologica.

Engelmann received an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena. After his death the business was in the hands of his widow and his son Rudolf Engelmann.