 Dilthey followed family tradition by starting his university studies at Heidelberg in theology. There he was also introduced to the philosophical systems of the idealists by Kuno Fischer. Because Fischer was accused of being a pantheist, his right to teach was withdrawn in 1853. Dilthey then moved to the University of Berlin, where he came under the influence of two of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s students, Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg and August Boeckh. Increasingly, Schleiermacher became the focus of Dilthey’s interests. In 1859 he was asked to complete the editing of Schleiermacher’s letters. That year the Schleiermacher Society also organized an essay competition. Dilthey’s submission entitled “Schleiermacher’s Hermeneutical System in Relation to Earlier Protestant Hermeneutics” (1860, SW.IV, 33–227), was awarded the first prize and led to a second commission, namely, to write Schleiermacher’s biography. The first volume of this biography was published in 1870. It places Schleiermacher not only in his theological setting but also in the context of the literary and philosophical movements astir in Berlin from 1796 to 1807. The work displays Dilthey’s own expanding interests in aesthetical and philosophical issues. He also wrote his dissertation on Schleiermacher’s ethics.