Elfriede Knauer (née Overhoff; 3 July 1926 – 7 June 2010[1]) was a German Classicist and Ancient historian specialising in Greek vase painting, the survival of classical themes in Renaissance art, the history of cartography, classical influences on Central and East Asian art, and the Silk Road.

[2] Knauer gained her PhD in 1951 on the subject of pre-Christian apsidal buildings in Greece and Italy from the Goethe University Frankfurt.

[1] Elfriede, along with her husband Georg Nicolaus Knauer (a noted philologist) lived in West Berlin between 1954 and 1975; she worked as an assistant in the department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the State Museums.

This obstacle, however, has been cited as an important factor in allowing Elfriede nearly unlimited time for research and writing and contributed significantly to her substantial publication record.

[2] Following her death, her archive of academic papers and photographs was donated to the Classical Art Research Centre at the University of Oxford.