Wilhelm Nestle was the only son of Christian Gottlieb Nestle, solicitor of the Supreme Court (d. 1879) and Maria Christiane Steudel (d. 1889), who had other children in previous marriages. After his school years, Nestle studied Classical Philology, Philosophy and History at the University of Tübingen and the Humboldt University of Berlin. He was a disciple, among others, Alfred von Gutschmid and Erwin Rohde. In 1888 passed the examination of teachers and in 1889 received his doctorate in philosophy at Tubingen; entered the school service Wurtemberg, frequently changing positions; among others, worked in Heilbronn, Tübingen, Stuttgart, Ulm and Maulbronn. There he married Klara Neuffer in 1899 and started in the same year, trips to Greece and Italy. In 1900, he took a position as tutor in Schwäbisch Hall. In that city he published the first of many works: Euripides, der Dichter der griechischen Aufklärung (Euripides, the poet of the Greek Enlightenment), which earned him the call in 1902 as a professor at the Evangelist Theological Seminary Schöntal, where he taught for six years. From 1909 to 1913 he was director of studies at the Stuttgart Karlsgymnasium; 1913 to 1919 he was rector of Karlsgymnasiums Heilbronner, after which he returned to Stuttgart Karlsgymnasium as a third decision. I retired in 1932, he was appointed honorary professor of Greek philosophy in the University of Tubingen. Following the publication of numerous philological writings appeared in 1940 and 1944 his major works: Vom Mythos zum Logos, die Selbstentfaltung des griechischen Denkens von Homer bis auf die Sophistik und Sokrates (from mythos to logos: The self-deployment of Greek thought from Homer to sophistry and Socrates) and von Homer bis Griechische Geistesgeschichte Lukian in ihrer Entfaltung mythischen vom zum Denken rationalen dargestellt (History of the Greek spirit from Homer to Lucian, exposed in its development from the mythic to rational thought). In 1947 the University of Heidelberg awarded him Kuno Fischer Vom Mythos zum Competition Logos. On the same date Nestle began to go blind. He died at ninety-four.