Franz August Schmölders (28 November 1809, in Rhede, Münsterland – 21 February 1880, in Breslau) was a German orientalist.
He attended lectures by the great French Arabist silvestre de Sacy, Joseph Toussaint Reinaud (1795–1867) and Pierre Amédée Jaubert.
After only one and a half years (1844) Schmölders became an Associate Professor of Oriental Languages and Literatures at the University of Breslau.
He provided part-time lessons in Hebrew and French at Matthew Gymnasium and taught with official permission also an English course, in which he tutored gifted students.
After the death of his older colleague Georg Heinrich Bernstein (1860) Schmölders received on 10 October's full professor of Oriental Studies.
He worked for twenty years as a professor at the university and received during this time many honors at home and abroad.