Michael Bernays (27 November 1834 – 25 February 1897) was a German literary historian,[1] and an important Goethe and Shakespeare scholar.
He obtained a considerable reputation by his lectures on Shakespeare at Leipzig and an explanatory text to Beethoven's music to Egmont.
Having refused in 1866 an invitation to take part in the editorship of the Preussische Jahrbücher, in the same year he published his celebrated Zur Kritik und Geschichte des Goetheschen Textes.
[4] He confirmed his reputation by his lectures at the university of Leipzig, and in 1873 accepted the post of extraordinary professor of German literature at Munich specially created for him by Ludwig II of Bavaria.
[5] At an early age he became a Jewish Christian, whereas his brother Jakob remained a Rabbinical Jew.