Joseph Ferdinand Damberger (1 March 1795 – 1 April 1859) was a historian of the Catholic Church.
His first historical works appeared in Ratisbon in 1831, three closely related narratives:[1] In 1837, Damberger joined the Society of Jesus, completed his novitiate at Brieg, canton of Valais, Switzerland, where he spent about ten years, partly as a mission-preacher and partly as professor of ecclesiastical history at Lucerne.
A collection of his mission sermons was printed (Lucerne, 1842; 2nd ed., 1852), but was violently attacked (Missionsunfug der Jesuiten; Bern, 1842).
The defeat of the Sonderbund (1847) brought with it the expulsion of the Jesuits from Switzerland.
Damberger then spent several years in Innsbruck and Regensburg, and in 1853 became confessor at the Convent of Schäftlarn in Bavaria, where he died.