Styria-born Maximilian Schimek, the son of an immigrant brewer from Bohemia and his wife, was the polyglot author of several books, articles and maps on various topics, translator and engraver, teacher of Czech in Vienna and elsewhere as well as an important trailblazer of the Czech National Revival movement and the scientific pursuit of Slavic studies in Austria. Schimek's manuscripts of a comparative grammar and history of the Slavic languages are of great significance to the reflection of the roots and the origin of methodically and scientifically pursued Slavic philology. They help us to obtain a clear idea about the state of knowledge concerning the Slavic languages at the end of the 18th century. We can at the same time clearly show the differences to Josef Dobrovský and his scientific approach in his Institutiones linguae Slavicae dialecti veteris (1822) as well as identify the organically grown developmental stages in scientific Slavic studies. Schimek's role in this context was one of an eclectic. His main achievement was the condensation of the then current understanding of Slavic studies, but also other subjects. Moreover, he was a politically alert scholar who had his finger always on the pulse of time. In this respect, he can be rightly called a homo eruditus et politicus.