Joseph Wilpert

He was born into a rural family in Eiglau near Bauerwitz (then in Upper Silesia in Prussia and now in Poland), the second of five children of Anastasius and Marianna.

He learned under Anton de Waal, rector of the Campo Santo, and chaplain and 'convictor' Johann Peter Kirsch, becoming lifelong friends with both of them.

Rome thus became his homeland, only leaving during the First World War (when all Germans were expelled) or on research trips to view sarcophagi in France, Spain, Algeria and Tunisia.

In 1891 he left the Campo Santo to live in the home of Monsignore Germano Straniero near the Lateran, then from 1921 in the Teutonic Institute, where he died as the result of a fall.

He never held an official office or position, but his earliest publications earned him the title of papal chamberlain in 1891 and an honorary doctorate of the Royal Academy of Munster in 1892.

Joseph Wilpert, photographed in 1903 , publication year of his best-known works.
His grave.