Wild was born on 20 September 1930. He studied
physics at the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. After receiving his doctorate in 1955, he first worked as an assistant to
Heinz Maier-Leibnitz at the
Technical University of Munich. In 1957, he moved to
Heidelberg University, where he investigated atomic nuclei with
J. Hans D. Jensen, who later won the Nobel Prize. His
habilitation in 1960 was followed the following year by an associate professorship at the
Free University of Berlin. In November of the same year, he took over the Chair of Theoretical Physics at the
Department of Physics of the
Technical University of Munich. == Political career ==