Born in Hamburg, he studied at Leipzig, Berlin and Göttingen, in 1838 he was appointed to the professorship of philology at Dorpat, which, however, he resigned in 1843. He afterwards spent some time in Italy, but settled in Jena in 1844, where he became professor in 1846. In the same year he removed as head librarian to Weimar.
His chief works are: Demeter u. Persephone (1837); Griechische Mythologie (1854—1855; 4th ed., by C Robert, 1887 seq.); and Römische Mythologie (1858; 3rd ed. by H Jordan, 1881-1883). He also co-operated with Heinrich Ritter in the preparation of the most useful Historia philosophiae graecae et romanae ex fontium locis contexta (1838; ed. E Wellmann, 1898). He contributed extensively to Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encyklopädie and Pauly's Realencyklopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. A complete list of his works will be found in Ausgewählte Aufsätze aus dem Gebiete der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft (ed. R. KOhler, 1864).
See GT Stichling, Ludwig Preller. Eine Gedächtnissrede (Weimar, 1863); C Bursian, Geschichte der classischen Philologie in Deutschland (1883).
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.