Born in, Luther studied musicology, philosophy and theology in Göttingen and Berlin. In 1936 he received his doctorate with a thesis on Gallus Dreßler in Göttingen. He completed his studies with a doctorate and state examination. He entered the academic library service in 1939; after his subject examination in 1941 at the Berlin State Library he worked at the Göttingen University Library. Under he was promoted to deputy director, and in 1958 he succeeded him in his office. Luther was particularly committed to the re-establishment of the German after the end of the Second World War and to cataloguing. Thus the "Central Catalogue of Foreign Literature" was maintained in Göttingen, which formed an important basis for interlibrary loan. He also founded the Niedersächsische Zentralkatalog, set up the Göttingen journal reference and pushed for a reworking of the Göttingen. In addition to his work in the library, he was also active in teaching and published several articles on library science and librarianship. In 1959 he was appointed honorary professor in Göttingen, where he taught general bibliography and documentation, library science and history of science. For the second edition of the "Handbuch der Bibliothekswissenschaften" he revised the chapter on the use of libraries, together with Wilhelm Krabbe he wrote the "Lehrbuch der Bibliotheksverwaltung". With Willi Kahl he published the Repertorium der Musikwissenschaft, an important location reference for music literature in German libraries. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach he prepared the exhibition "Documenta", which was shown in Göttingen, Schaffhausen, Florence and Milan and attracted more than 20,000 visitors. Since 1961, Luther also served as director of the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut in Göttingen. Until shortly before his death, Luther was active in various professional associations: He was part of the , the Library Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as well as that of the Association Internationale des Bibliothèques Musicales and was Chairman of the "University Libraries" Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.. In 1961 he was elected chairman of the VDB, but had to resign after only a few months due to a serious illness. Luther verstarb am 2. Juni 1962 in Göttingen at age 49.
Publications
Luther, Wilhelm M.: Gallus Dressler. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des protestantischen Schulkantorats im 16. Jahrhundert, Göttingen 1942, zugleich: Göttingen, Univ.-Diss.
Luther, Wilhelm M. : Johann Sebastian Bach. Documenta, Kassel / Basel 1950.
Luther, Wilhelm M. / Krabbe, Wilhelm: Lehrbuch der Bibliotheksverwaltung, Stuttgart 1953.
Kahl, Willi / Luther, Wilhelm M. : Repertorium der Musikwissenschaft. Musikschrifttum, Denkmäler und Gesamtausgaben in Auswahl mit Besitzvermerken deutscher Bibliotheken und musikwissenschaftlicher Institute, Kassel / Basel 1953.
Luther, Wilhelm M.: Der internationale Leihverkehr. In Libri 7,2–3,,.
Luther, Wilhelm M.: Die nicht-liturgischen Musikinkunabeln der Göttinger Bibliothek. In: Voigt, Christian : Libris et litteris. Festschrift für Hermann Tiemann zum 60. Geburtstag am 9. Juli 1959, Hamburg 1959,.
Luther, Wilhelm M.: Die Bibliotheksbenutzung. In: Milkau, Fritz / Leyh, Georg : Handbuch der Bibliothekswissenschaft, 2nd edition. Wiesbaden 1961,.
