He studied medicine and philosophy, and obtained doctorates in the two fields from theUniversity of Freiburg in 1896.[3]
Ludwig Woltmann falls in the spiritual and ideological history of the 20th century with the racial theoristsArthur de Gobineau andHouston Stewart Chamberlain, in particular in terms of his racial theoretical thought. In his bookDie Germanen und die Renaissance in Italien (1905), he argued that the emergence of theRenaissance in Italy was led not by the descendants of theRomans, but by theGermanic tribes who had subdued Italy during theMiddle Ages. His ideas were mainly published by the journalPolitical-Anthropological Review (1902–1907) and in the bookPolitical Anthropology written in 1903. This and two other of his books were published in a 1936Otto Reche anthology.
Wolfhard Hammer,The Life and Work of the Physician and Social Anthropologist Ludwig Woltmann. Univ. Diss, Mainz 1979.
Jürgen Mixing,The Political Philosophy of Ludwig Woltmann. In the Field of Tension between Kantianism's Historical Materialism and Social Darwinism, Bonn 1975
Sebastian Pella,The Social Darwinism-bred Theoretical Thinking in Ludwig Woltmann's Artwork, Political Anthropology, Bottrop 2009.