He was born at Muskau, Lusatia. He studied archaeology and Germanic philology at the University of Breslau (1858/59 and 1862–64), and in 1859–61 attended the Bauakademie in Berlin, where he also took drawing classes. In 1866 he became a docent for Christian archaeology and art history at Breslau, where in 1872 he was named an associate professor. In 1882 he was called to the University of Prague as a full professor.[1][2]
Among his publications are a treatise on the Minnesingers in two volumes (1889) and a discussion of Germany in the 14th and 15th centuries (1892) as well as a treatise on domestic life in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period (1903).
1869: Beschreibung der Breslauer Bilderhandschrift des Froissart – Description of the Breslau manuscript of Froissart.
1870: Schlesiens Kunstleben im dreizehnten und vierzehnten Jahrhundert – Silesian artistic life in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
1878: Die Legende vom Leben der Jungfrau Maria und ihre Darstellung in der bildenden Kunst des Mittelalters – The legend of the life of the Virgin Mary: and its representation in the visual arts of the Middle Ages.
1889: Das höfische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger (2nd edition) – The court life at the time of Minnesinger.
1892: Deutsches Leben im XIV. und XV. Jahrhundert (2 vols) – German life in the XIV and XV centuries.
1894 et seq.: Allgemeine Geschichte der bildenden Künste – General history of the fine arts.
1901: Kunst und Kunstgeschichte (2nd edition) – Art and art history.
1903: Das Häusliche Leben der europäischen Kulturvölker vom Mittelalter bis zur zweiten Hälfte des XVIII. Jahrhunderts – The domestic life of the peoples of Europe from the Middle Ages to the mid-18th century.
