Heinrich Breitinger (11 March 1832, in Ellikon an der Thur – 2 March 1889, in Zürich) was a Swiss literary historian and philologist.

He studied medicine in Munich and Zürich, but due to a hand injury as the result of a duel, he was forced to leave the medical field.^[1] He then studied modern languages at Zürich, Basel and Lausanne, and from 1857 taught French and English classes at the cantonal school in Frauenfeld. From 1876 until his death, he was a full professor of modern languages at the University of Zürich.^[2]

• Der Salon Rambouillet und seine kulturgeschichtliche bedeutung, 1874 – The Salon Rambouillet and its culturo-historical importance.
• Die Vermittler des deutschen Geistes in Frankreich, 1876 – Mediators of the German spirit in France.
• Das Studium des Italienischen : die Entwicklung der Litterärsprache, 1879 – The study of Italian: the development of the literary language.
• Aus neuern litteraturen, 1879 – On modern literature.
• Les unités d'Aristote avant le Cid de Corneille : étude de littérature comparée (1879, 2nd edition 1895) – The unities of Aristotle and Le Cid of Pierre Corneille; a study of comparative literature.
• Studium und Unterricht des Französischen : ein encyklopädischer Leitfaden (2nd edition 1885) – Study and teaching of French: an encyclopedic guide.
• Die Briefe der Frau von Staël an Jakob Heinrich Meister, 1890 – The letters of Germaine de Staël to Jacques-Henri Meister.
• Studien und Wandertage : Mit Portrait und Lebensabriss, 1890.
• Grundzüge der englischen litteratur- und sprachgeschichte (3rd edition, 1896) – Principles of the history of English literature and linguistics.^[3][4]

He was also the author of a few biographies in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.^[5]