WEIZSÄCKER, KARL (1822-1899), German Protestant theologian, was born at Oehringen near Heilbronn in Württemberg, on the 11th of December 1822. After studying at Tübingen and Berlin, he became Privatdozent at Tübingen in 1847 and eventually (1861) professor of ecclesiastical and dogmatic history. From 1856 to 1878 he helped to edit the Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie; and his elaborate studies Untersuchungen über die evangelische Geschichte, ihre Quellen und 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 Weizsäcker (b. 1853), was appointed in 1900 Kultusminister for Württemberg.
Weizsäcker's other works include Zur Kritik des Barnabasbriefs (1863) and Ferdinand Christian Baur (1892). Cf. Hegler, Zur Erinnerung an Karl Weizsäcker (1900).