Descended from the German family settled in Galicia during the time of the Napoleon wars, later a part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire. He was the son of Józef Herman and Petronela de domo Stefanowski. Educated in the Franz Joseph High School in Lvov, than studied physics, chemistry and mathematics at the Kraków University till 1878. Supplementary studies in Vienna. In 1879 he defended his Ph. D. thesis in Kraków based on the study: On general methods of integration of the algebraic and transcendental functions. Since 1878 for nearly two decades was a teacher of mathematics and physics in the renowned agricultural school in Czernichów near Kraków. In 1897 he started his academic career at the Jagiellonian University, where he continued to work till the end of his life. At the beginning he was an extraordinary professor, than - since 1919 – he became an ordinary professor and lecturer of the history of mathematics, physics, astronomy and physical geography, simultaneously being a Chair of the History of Exact Sciences. In 1893 he was elected the correspondent member of Kraków Academy of Sciences and Letters, and in 1927 became its regular member. He was one of the organizers of the Library Commission of the Academy. In 1910-1913 he held the post of the secretary of its Commission for the History of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. Since 1918 the Academy was renamed into the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Birkenmajer was also the member of Scientific Society in Toruń and of the International Astronomical Union in Oxford. In 1923 took significant part in the jubilee celebration of the 450 anniversary of the Copernicus birth with the series of lectures presented in Kraków, Toruń, Poznań and Warsaw.
Ludwik was the founder of the renown Polish family of scholars. He was married Zofia, the daughter of Franciszek Karliński, the professor of astronomy in the Jagiellonian University, and inherited his library embracing mostly the books on mathematics and physics. They had three sons: Aleksander Ludwik, Józef, and Wincenty. His grandson is Krzysztof Birkenmajer. In 2011 the Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences received the name of father and son: Ludwik & Aleksander Birkenmajer.
Selected works
· O rozszerzalności ciał · O całkowaniu algebraicznem funkcyj algebraicznych · O przezroczystości powietrza · O kształcie i grawitacyi sferoidu ziemskiego · Tables des syzygies, calculées à Cracovie pour l'an 1379 et 1380 : contribution à l'histoire de l'astronomie en Pologne du XIVe siècle · Marcin Bylica z Olkusza oraz instrumenta astronomiczne, legowane przez niego Uniwersytetowi Jagiellońskiemu w roku 1493 · Mikołaj Kopernik. Studya nad pracami Kopernika oraz materyały biograficzne · Marco Beneventano, Kopernik, Wapowski a najstarsza karta geograficzna Polski · Nicolas Copernic · Niccolò Copernico e l'Università di Padova · Mikołaj Kopernik jako uczony, twórca i obywatel · Stromata Copernicana · Mikołaj Wodka z Kwidzyna, zwany Abstemius · Nicolaus Copernicus und der Deutsche Ritterorden
