Medievalist architectural historian. Braunfels' father was the composer Walter Braunfels (1882-1954) and his uncle was the sculptor and theorist Adolf von Hildebrand (1847-1921). Braunfels studied art history and literature history at the universities of Cologne, Paris (under Henri Focillon, Florence and finally in Bonn at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. At Bonn he studied art history under Paul Clemen and literature history the eminent philologist Ernst Robert Curtius (1886-1956).