Ernst Eduard Maria Hammerschmidt (29 April 1928 – 16 December 1993) was a scholar of Ethiopia as well as Ethiopian Christianity. From 1970 to 1990 he was professor for African languages and cultures at the University of Hamburg, specializing in Ethiopian studies: history, culture, religion, and classical Ethiopic literature. He also spent much of his life as a priest in the Old Catholic Church of Austria, and served as coadjutor bishop from 1991 to 1993.