Ferdinand Franz Wallraf (20 July 1748 - 18 March 1824) was a German botanist, mathematician, theologian, art collector and Roman Catholic priest.

As early as 1785, he was commissioned to improve the school and university system, but nothing was achieved due to inaction by the city government.

[1] When the Universitas was abolished by the French in 1798, during their occupation of the Left Bank of the Rhine, Wallraf became a teacher at its successor, the short-lived University of Cologne, in ine department of Belles Lettres.

His collection included Roman excavation pieces, various medieval paintings, religious works of art, manuscripts and early prints, coins, fossils, historical weapons and sculptures.

That same year, together with his fellow teacher Johann Caspar Schug (1766–1818), he founded the "Olympic Society", devoted to cultivating art and literature, as well as preserving Cologne's unique dialect and humor.

[4] To achieve this, he held frequent consultations with the printer and publisher, Theodor Franz Thiriart [de], who offered many helpful suggestions.

House numbering was reorganized according to the directions of General Charles Daurier [fr], to make addresses more logically sequential.