Ernst Ludwig Dümmler (2 January 1830 - 11 September 1902) was a German historian.

The son of Ferdinand Dümmler (1777-1846), a Berlin bookseller, Ernst Ludwig was born in Berlin. He studied at Bonn under JW Löbell (1786-1863), under Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm Wattenbach, and his doctor's dissertation, De Arnulfo Francorum rege (Berlin, 1852), was a notable essay.

He entered the faculty at Halle in 1855, and started an historical Seminar. In 1858 he became professor extraordinary, in 1866 full professor. In 1875 he became a member of the revised committee directing the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, himself undertaking the direction of the section "Antiquitates," and in 1888 became president of the central board in Berlin. This was an official recognition of Dümmler's leading position among German historians.

In addition to numerous critical works and editions of texts, he published:

• Piligrim von Passau und des Erzbistum Lorch (1854)
• Über die alteren Slawen in Dalmatien (1856)
• Das Formelbuch des Bischofs Salomo III. von Konstanz (1857)
• Anseim der Peripatetiker (1872)

But his great work was the Geschichte des ostfrankischen Reiches (Berlin, 1862-1865, Sn. 2 vols.; 2nd ed. 1887-1888, in 3 vols.). In conjunction with Wattenbach he completed the Monumenia Alcuiniana (Berlin, 1873), which had been begun by Philipp Jaffb , and with R Köpke he wrote Kaiser Otto der Grosse (Leipzig, 1876).

He edited the first and second volumes of the "Poetae latini aevi Carolini" for the Monumenta Germaniue historica (Berlin, 1881-1884).

His son, Ferdinand Dümmler (1859-1896), who won some reputation as an archaeologist and philologist, was professor at the university of Basel from 1890 until his death on 15 November 1896.