Background
He was born in Berlin on 28 December 1911, and was a grandson of Ernst Viktor von Leyden.
He was born in Berlin on 28 December 1911, and was a grandson of Ernst Viktor von Leyden.
He received a broad humanistic education, studying at German (Berlin, Göttingen) and Italian (Florence) universities. Just before the second World War broke out he managed to come to England in 1939, where he was, as a German national and an Italian resident, interned on the Isle of Manitoba, like most citizens of the Axis powers that came to the United Kingdom. Throughout his career he studied the concepts of memory (Fernández 2006) and identity (McClure, 1996). From 1946 to 1977 he lectured at Durham University.
After retiring he continued part-time at the London School of Economics.
At London School of Economics Wolfgang"s seminars on Ancient Greek thought were so popular that many of the attendees were not even officially taking the course, such was his standing. He died on 4 September 2004, kind and modest to the last.