Researching Franz Kugler

Kugler was born in Königsbach, Palatinate, then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1885, and the following year he entered the Jesuits. By 1893 he had been ordained as a priest. Four years later at the age of 35, he became a professor of Mathematics at Ignatius-College in Valkenburg in the Netherlands.

He is most noted for his studies of cuneiform tablets and Babylonian astronomy. He worked out the Babylonian theories on the Moon and planets, which were published in 1907. However his full work on Babylonian astronomy was never completed, with only three volumes out of a planned five published.

He died in Lucerne, Switzerland.

He studied literature, music and the visual arts at the University of Berlin. After attending classes in Heidelberg, he returned to Berlin in 1827 in order to study architecture. In 1831 he obtained his doctorate under Ernst Heinrich Toelken with a dissertation on Werinher of Tegernsee. In 1833 he was appointed professor of art history at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, and ten years later, was named to the Ministry of Culture, from which he served as an overseer of Prussian art. Cultural historian, Jakob Burckhardt, was a prominent student of his.

In 1837 he released his "Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei" (2 volumes), and a few years later, he published the acclaimed "Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte", a comprehensive survey of world art. He was also the author of a biography on Frederick the Great, "Geschichte Friedrichs des Großen" (1840) and of a monograph on architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1842).

From 1833 to 1837, he was editor of the journal "Museum, Blätter für bildende Kunst". Johannes Brahms employed text written by Kugler for his Ständchen ("Der Mond steht über dem Berge"), a song for voice and piano, Op. 106/1.