Wolfgang Müller-Wiener

Wolfgang Müller-Wiener (Friedrichswerth, Thuringia, 17 May 1923 - Istanbul, Turkey, 25 March 1991) was a German architecture historian, archaeologist and Byzantinist.

After an apprenticeship as a carpenter, from 1948 to 1951 he studied architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and he got a Doctorate in 1954 on the theme of Development of industrial building in Baden. From 1962 to 1967 he was the second director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo and during this time he directed the excavations at Abu Mena by Alexandria. After his habilitation in 1965 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in 1967 he was appointed full professor of history of architecture at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt. In 1976 he was elected the first director of the Istanbul Branch of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). His main interests during this period were the topography of Constantinople and ancient Istanbul, the castles of the Eastern Mediterranean and the architectural history of Miletus, where from 1974 until his retirement in 1988, he led the excavations. In this Ionian archaeological site he studied with Berthold Weber three Hellenistic temples and Heroa, and in addition early Christian buildings.