Wilhelm Adolf Schmidt (September 26, 1812, Berlin - April 10, 1887) was a German historian.

In 1851,he became professor for history at the University of Zürich; nine years, he went to the University of Jena, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was a member of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1848, and of the German Reichstag from 1874 to 1876. His historical works deal mainly with modern German history; the most important of them are:

• Preussens deutsche Politik (Berlin, 1850, and other editions)
• Geschichte der preussisch-deutschen Unionsbestrebungen (Berlin, 1851)
• Zeitgenössische Geschichten (Berlin, 1859)
• Elsass und Lothringen (Leipzig, 1859 and 1870)
• Geschichte der deutschen Verfassungsfrage während der Befreiungskriege und des Wiener Kongresses (Stuttgart, 1890), which was published after his death by A Stern.

Schmidt also wrote:

• Tableaux de la Révolution Française publiés sur les papiers inédits du département de la police secrete de Paris (Leipzig, 1867-1870)
• Pariser Zustände während der Revolutionszeit (Jena, 1874—1876), translated into French by P. Viollet (Paris, 1880—1885)
• Das Perikleische Zeitalter (Jena, 1877—1879)
• Handbuch der griechischen Chronologie (Jena, 1888)
• Abhandlungen zur alten Geschichte (Leipzig, 1888).

Also see

• The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states

References

• H. Landwehr, Zur Erinnerung an Adolf Schmidt (Berlin, 1887).