Career
In 1852 he obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Rostock, obtaining his habilitation a few years later (1856) with a treatise on the physiological effects of emetics. In 1859 he became an associate professor, afterwards turning down a professorship in internal medicine at Dorpat, and instead accepting a position as professor at the institute of pathological anatomy and experimental pathology at Rostock (1865). In 1873 he was appointed director of the institute of pathology at the University of Halle, where in 1884-1885 he served as rector.
In 1895 he was forced to resign due to health reasons, his replacement being Karl Joseph Eberth (1835-1926).