Karl Peter Wilhelm Maurenbrecher (21 December 1838 - 6 November 1892) was a German historian.
He was born at Bonn and studied in Berlin and Munich under Leopold von Ranke and Heinrich von Sybel, being especially influenced by the latter historian. After doing some research work at Simancas in Spain, he became extraordinary and ordinary professor of history at the university of Dorpat in 1867; and was then in turn professor at Königsberg in 1869, Bonn in 1877 and Leipzig in 1884. In Leipzig he was the successor of Carl von Noorden, who died in 1883. Noorden was a friend auf Maurenbrecher. Maurenbrecher died at Leipzig in 1892. The historian Maurenbrecher was the first Protestant, who wrote about the Catholic reform's movement. In consequence of this and the following controversies in the Catholic and Protestant historical science the research of sources of the Catholic reform's movement began.
Many of Maurenbrecher's works are concerned with the Reformation, among them being England im Reformationszeitalter (Düsseldorf, 1866); Karl V. und die deutschen Protestanten (Düsseldorf, 1865); Studien und Skizzen zur Geschichte der Reformationszeit (Leipzig, 1874); and the incomplete Geschichte der Katholischen Reformation (Nördlingen, 1880). He also wrote Don Karlos (Berlin, 1876); Gründung des deutschen Reiches 1859-1871 (Leipzig, 1892, and again 1902); and Geschichte der deutschen Königswahlen (Leipzig, 1889).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.