[1] Carl Adolf Schimmelpfennig[2] was born in Oels, a mid-sized town a short distance to the east of Breslau.
He was born into an impoverished family, but his parents died while he was still very young and he grew up in the town's orphanage.
[1] In 1843 he became a Protestant minister at Arnsdorf a short distance to the south of Strehlen, still in Lower Silesia.
In the meantime, in 1862 he received his doctorate from the Philosophy Faculty at the University of Wrocław for a piece of work on Gregory of Nazianzus' Carmen LIV.
[1][3] In 1879 Schimmelpfennig relocated to Breslau where he was able to apply his scholarly proclivities to work as librarian for the Silesian Society for German Culture.