Born in Landshut, Wünsch studied history, philosophy and Slavic at the University of Regensburg from 1982 to 1988.
From 1998 to 2003, Wünsch was a university lecturer in general and East Central European history of the Middle Ages.
Since 2003, Wünsch has taught Modern and Contemporary History of Eastern Europe and its Cultures at the University of Passau.
He is a member of the Historical Commission for Silesia [de][1] and since 2004 co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung.
His research interests include parliamentary forms in church and state, religious sites of memory, the nobility in Silesia, humanism and the Renaissance in Eastern Europe, and Ruthenia.