Ludwig Laistner (3 November 1845 – 22 March 1896) was a German novelist, mythologist, and literary historian.
He studied theology in Tübingen from 1863 to 1867 and was a pastor for two years before heart trouble obliged him to resign.
He took instead a position as a private tutor in Munich, where he joined Die Krokodile, a poets' society, and worked with Paul Heyse on the Neuen deutschen Novellenschatz, a compilation of short stories.
He wrote historical novels and poems, and Das Rätsel der Sphinx (1889), a book on mythology from an Idealist perspective which argued that dreams and nightmares were the ultimate source of many famous myths.
He was a translator of medieval student songs such as those of the Carmina Burana, and wrote book reviews for Allgemeine Zeitung.