Prof. Dr. Paul Klimpel studied law in Bonn and Munich and philosophy, psychology and social sciences at the Jesuit College of Philosophy. Traineeship in Berlin. Dissertation at the Humboldt University.

In 2002 he joined the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, of which he was administrative director from 2006 to 2011. He has been involved in numerous national and international committees and was managing director of the Netzwerk Mediatheken.

He heads the conference series “Zugang gestalten! Mehr Verantwortung für das kulturelle Erbe” (Shaping Access! More Responsibility for Cultural Heritage), which was hosted in 2023 by the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”. Since 2012, he has been a partner in the law firm iRights.Law. In 2013, he led an interdisciplinary group of experts that formulated the "Berlin Appeal for the Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage". In 2015, he initiated the "Hamburg Note on the Digitisation of Cultural Heritage".

Since June 2022, he holds an honorary professorship at the Goethe University Frankfurt.

The list of his publications can be found here. 

In January 2026, his monograph “Abbildungen in der Kunstwissenschaft. Eine kleine Rechtsfibel” (Images in Art History: A Short Legal Primer) was published in the “Access Points” series by the Centre for Advanced Study.