Wilfried Hartmann studied German Philology, Theology, Philosophy and Education at the universities of Hamburg and Tübingen, got his doctoral degree 1971 in General Linguistics Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft and an Honorary Doctoral degree in Education from the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 1994. He started his professional life as teacher at senior secondary schools and as assistant, later senior lecturer at universities.
Since 1980, he hold a tenure as Professor, at first for general Education and Methods of the Teaching of German as First and Second Language, then for Comparative and International Education at Universität Hamburg. From 1983 to 1987, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Education, between 1996 and 2003 he was Vice-President of his University. Between these functions, he was Director of the Institute for Didactics of Language Teaching and of the Institute for Comparative Education, and from 2002 to 2006, he was responsible as „Director for Comparative German and European Studies“ for this field at the ICGS (International Center for Graduate Studies) of Universität Hamburg. From 1996 until 2004, he was a member and the vice-chair of the „Governing board“ and the „Standing Committee“ of the „UNESCO-Institute for Education“, the present „Unesco Institute for Lifelong Learning“. After his retirement, Hartmann represented his university until bis 2016 as one of the directors of the “European University Foundation”, Luxemburg. He accepted invitations as visiting professor at the universities of Riga in Latvia, Kaunas in Lithuania, and Luxemburg. He works as consultant for international schools and universities, e.g. as member of the Academic Advisory Board of the WISS (Western International School Shanghai).
He published a number of books and articles on education, methods of the teaching of German and on comparative education. He received numerous medals, e.g.: from Helsinki University, the Charles University Prague, the Osaka City University, the Thammasat University Bangkok, the University Ankara, but as well the Partnership Medal of the City of St. Petersburg, a golden coin from the Senate of the City of Hamburg, a bronze medal from Pope Benedict XVI, the Great Jubilee Memorial Medal of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia and the Bugenhagen medal of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.
In addition to his professional activities he holds a number of honorary leading positions in the Lutheran church, e.g. since more than 20 years as chair of the district synod of the eastern part of Hamburg and since 2009 as President of the General Synod of the Lutheran Churches of Germany.