  Between 1884 and 1885 Rickert was enrolled at the University of Berlin, where he attended lectures from the philosopher Friedrich Paulsen (1846–1908). In 1885 he moved to Strasbourg (then Straßburg and part of the Prussian Reich) where he attended the Neo-Kantian philosopher Wilhelm Windelband’s lectures. Windelband (1848–1915) was a major source of inspiration for Rickert’s work and he completed a dissertation on The Theory of Definition (Rickert 1915) under Windelband’s supervision in 1888. In the same year he married Sophie Keibel, a sculptor from Berlin. They had four children.