One of the greatest epigraphists of this century was Adolf Wilhelm, who died on August 10, 1950. His highly reputed creative power was not reflected in extensive corpus works or large books but rather in hundreds of rather smaller articles, indeed in part very short individual contributions distributed over a wide range of publication locations. Adolf Wilhelm's investigations, readings and commentaries are testimony to a highly significant academic capacity, the like of which has rarely seen since. But precisely this manner of short publication in at times extremely remote places represents a major handicap to any epigraphic, ancient history and antiquity research. In this way, a large amount of material is thoroughly insufficiently known to the intentional academic community.The reprint of these "Short Writings" by Adolf Wilhelm thus represents a major need for the present. Since as early as 1953, for instance, Hermann Bengtson, one of the leading German ancient historians, has been saying (most recently in "Einfuhrung in die Alte Geschichte", Munich, Beck 1969, p. 161): "It would be very welcome from the point of view of research if a publisher could now be found for the scattered works of Ulrich Wilckens, Adolf Wilhelm, Anton von Premerstein and others."\n\nThe former Zentralantiquariat der DDR in Leipzig published five part-volumes in the years 1974 to 1985, but was dissolved without successor following the political changes. These part volumes are:\nSection I: Academic Writings on Greek Epigraphy, parts 1-3\nSection II: Essays and Contributions on Greek Epigraphy, parts 1-2 \nThere still remain roughly 174 articles, whose total of approximately 2000 pages will probably take up 3 volumes. Section II is now continued in the present volume. It should be noted that the published material (epigraphs) and interpretations are neither outdated nor will they ever become outdated.\n\nWith this project, there is an agreement with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (Dr. Klaus Hallof of the Inscriptiones Graecae); Dr. Hallof's wife, Dr. Luise Hallof, is currently working on the indexes for all the previous and planned volumes.

It is now 50 years since the death of Adolf Wilhelm, one of the greatest Greek epigraphers of his generation. Although he authored only a few monographs, his huge creative power was reflected overwhelmingly in hundreds of generally smaller articles that are remarkable for their extraordinary and precise density of explanation. Of course, the wealth of material is hardly manageable, and in addition was in part published in sources that are difficult to access. The reprint of these "Kleine Schriften" by Adolf Wilhelm thus constitutes a desideratum of the first order for the present age.