After attending the from 1833 to 1838, Schaefer studied
philology and
history at the
University of Leipzig. His teachers included
Moritz Haupt (1808–1874),
Gottfried Hermann (1772–1848), and
Wilhelm Wachsmuth (1784-1866). After his graduation, Schaefer initially attempted a
habilitation project on
Old High German, supervised by Moritz Haupt. Due to a favourable job offer from the
educationalist Karl Justus Blochmann (1786–1855), Schaefer was persuaded to relocate to
Dresden, where he subsequently taught classes in history and
ancient languages at the . Schaefer was already producing a large number of publications at this time, including the school textbook
Commentatio de libro vitarum decem oratorum (
Commentary on the Book of the Lives of the Ten Orators, 1844) and
Geschichtstabellen zum Auswendiglernen (
Historical tables for memorisation, 1847), a practical handbook for students, which contained important dates in world history from antiquity to his day, divided into three sections: general history, epochal history, and cultural history. By 1888 it had been through 17 editions, the last two of which (1885 and 1888) were edited by Schaefer's colleague Julius Asbach. In 1851, Schaefer was appointed to the
Gymnasium St. Augustine in
Grimma. There he completed the first two volumes of his three-volume work
Demosthenes und seine Zeit (
Demosthenes and his Time, 1856-1858), on which he had been working for ten years. His valedictory speech at the school discussed Demosthenes'
On the Crown. On 30 November 1857, Schaefer became an ordinary professor of history at the
University of Greifswald. Schaefer dealt with all periods and fields of history, but with a focus on
Roman history and the modern
history of Prussia. He maintained friendly links with colleagues in various fields, including the economist , the archaeologist
Adolf Michaelis, and the philologists
Martin Hertz,
Georg Friedrich Schömann, and
Hermann Usener. He refused a post at the
University of Königsberg in 1863, to fill the vacancy left by
Wilhelm von Giesebrecht's departure. In the summer of 1865, Schaefer moved to the
University of Bonn, where he held the Chair of History until he died in 1883. The faculty of history was established at the same time; before this, all professors of history had been part of the philology faculty. In the academic year 1871/72, Schaefer served as
a rector of the university. In Bonn, Schaefer continued his lectures from Greidswald.
Source criticism of Greek and Roman historical texts formed an important part of his lessons, forming the foundations for his publication in 1867 of
Abriß der Quellenkunde der griechischen Geschichte bis auf Polybios (
Outline of Source Criticism of Greek History up to Polybios). A second volume of the work was published shortly before his death under the title
Abriß der Quellenkunde der griechischen und römischen Geschichte (
Outline of Source Criticism of Greek and Roman History, 1883). His successor,
Heinrich Nissen produced a second edition of this work in 1885, which itself received a second printing in 1867. The studies of Prussian history which Schaefer had begun in Greifswald intensified in Bonn. He published the
Geschichte des siebenjährigen Kriegs (History of the
Seven Years' War) in three volumes between 1867 and 1874. The work was praised by the domestic and foreign press for his novel depiction of the operations. Shortly after the publication of the final volume, Schaefer undertook an extended educational tour of
Greece,
Asia Minor,
Syria, and
Italy. In 1879, he visited Rome for the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the
German Archaeological Institute there, and in 1880 he visited the
Peloponnese, spending a great deal of time in
Olympia. On the return journey, he was struck by a severe bout of
rheumatism, from which he recovered by a trip to a health spa. A few weeks after his return from the health spa, on 19 November 1883, Schaefer unexpectedly died at work from a stroke. His grave is in the
Alter Friedhof. In his final years, Schaefer had been working on a new edition of his work on Demosthenes, to take account of the numerous
papyrus finds and textual emendations that had occurred in the thirty years since the publication of the original work. The work was completed by Max Hoffmann and it appeared in three volumes, shortly after his death (1885-1887). In 1894, Schaefer's widow, Eugenie Schaefer née Großmann (daughter of the theologian
Christian Gottlob Großmann) donated 100,000
marks to found the "Arnold-Schäfer-Fund" to support students and young scholars at the University of Bonn, which is still active today. == Selected works ==