Wilhelm Baehrens

After visiting the local gymnasium he stepped in his early deceased father's footsteps by studying philology and papyrology at the University of Groningen.

In 1910 Baehrens received his doctor's degree at Groningen with his dissertation Panegyricorum latinorum editionis novae praefatio maior accedit Plinii panegyricus.

For two years he acted as assistant schoolmaster at the Groningen gymnasium, until in 1912 he published his Beiträge zur lateinischen Syntax.

In 1913 the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities entrusted him with the publication of the Latin homilies by Origen.

After the loss of Germany in World War I and the termination of the German occupation of Belgium, Baehrens was expelled from Ghent as a collaborator in 1919.