Wölfflin was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, and is buried in Basel. His father, Eduard Wölfflin, was a professor of classical philology who taught at Munich University and helped found and organize the "Thesaurus Linguae Latinae". Wölfflin studied art history and history with Jakob Burckhardt at the University of Basel, philosophy with Wilhelm Dilthey at Berlin University, and art history and philosophy at Munich University where his father had taught. He received his degree from Munich University in 1886 in philosophy, although he was already on a course to study the newly minted discipline of art history.