First professor of art theory and art history at University of Berlin (1810); responsible for the collection of antiquities of the King of Prussia from 1798; archaeologist of Greek and Roman architecture. Hirt came from a peasant family. After education by Benedictine monks and the Donauschingen Gymnasium, he studied philosophy in Nancy, France, with the intent of gaining a degree in law. He briefly studied law at Freiburg before switching to the university in Vienna, where between 1779 and 1782 he studied classics.