Wilhelm Scherer

Wilhelm Scherer
Born	(1841-04-26)26 April 1841 Schönborn, Austrian Empire (present-day Göllersdorf, Lower Austria, Austria)
Died	6 August 1886(1886-08-06) (aged 45) Berlin

Wilhelm Scherer (26 April 1841 – 6 August 1886) was a German philologist and historian of literature. He was known as a positivist because he based much of his work on "hypotheses on detailed historical research, and rooted every literary phenomenon in 'objective' historical or philological facts". His positivism is different due to his involvement with his nationalist goals. His major contribution to the movement was his speculation that culture cycled in a six-hundred-year period.