KARL WEIZSACKER (1822-1899), German Protestant theologian, was born at Oehringen near Heilbronn in Wurttemberg, on the 11th of December 1822. After studying at Tubingen and Berlin, he became Privatdozent at Tubingen in 1847 and eventually (1861) professor of ecclesiastical and dogmatic history. From 1856 to 1878 he helped to edit the Jahrbiicher fiir deutsche Theologie; and his elaborate studies Untersuchungen fiber die evangelische Geschichte, ihre Quellen and den Gang ihrer Entwicklung (1864) and Das apostolische Zeitalter der christl. Kirche (1886, 2nd ed. 1893; Engl. trans. 1894-1895) made him widely known and respected. He died on the 13th of August 1899. His son, Karl von Weizsacker (b. 1853), was appointed in 1900 Kultusminister for Wurttemberg.
Weizsacker's other works include Zur Kritik des Barnabasbriefs (1863) and Ferdinand Christian Baur (1892). Cf. Hegler, Zur Erinnerung an Karl Weizscicker (1900).