Walter Helmut Häntzschel (16 November 1904 – 10 May 1972) was a German paleontologist.
He published an influential Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (1975) that made trace fossils and ichnotaxa an area of active research.
[1] Häntzschel was born in Dresden to school teacher Theodor Johannes and Minna Müller.
He joined the Senckenberg marine paleontological research station at Wilhelmshaven and in 1938 became curator at the State Museum for Mineralogy and Geology in Dresden.
He then joined the University of Halle and in 1949 curator at the State Geological Institute in Hamburg working there until retirement in 1969.