

Adolf Matthias Hildebrandt was a German genealogist, heraldist and publicist.
He was the son of Pastor Adolf Bernhard Hildebrandt (1810–??) of Mieste, a knight of the 4th class of the Red Eagle Order, who retired in 1881, and Caroline Daubert (1812–1875) of Genthin. Hildebrandt designed coats of arms and bookplates, including for the publisher Carl Langenscheidt (1870–1952). He was the founder of the Exlibris magazine. In addition, he was the managing editor of the monthly magazine Deutscher Herold, the magazine of the heraldic association Herold, of which he was a founding member, from 1870–71 and 1880–1918. In 1880 he was appointed a professor by the Duke of Saxe-Altenburg.
Hildebrandt was the author of numerous publications, mainly on heraldry. Among other honors, Hildebrandt's heraldic work was recognized with honorary membership in the heraldic association “Zum Kleeblatt” in Hannover, founded in 1888. The number of bookplates, family trees and coats of arms he designed or drew is extraordinarily large. Typical of Hildebrandt's heraldry is the use of plant motifs, which he took from the coats of arms themselves and transformed in a Gothic style. Also characteristic is the recurring shape of the helmets, which experts call “Hildebrandt helmets” after him.
Hildebrandt's most influential publication was an introduction to heraldry (“Wappenfibel”), of which he published several editions, each supplemented and expanded, under different titles; from the third edition in 1893, the Wappenfibel was published “on behalf of the Herold Association”, which also produced several posthumous editions. After 1945, new editions were published by Jürgen Arndt and later by Ludwig Biewer and Eckard Henning. He had two sons and a daughter with Marie Ottenberg from Osterwiek (married 1881).