 He was trained in pharmacy before studying chemistry, medicine and pharmacy at a number of universities, receiving his doctorate in engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 1913.Lautenschläger served for a year in the German Imperial Army before returning to medical study, eventually receiving his MD from the University of Freiburg in 1919.He followed an academic career initially, becoming a non-tenured professor of pharmacy at the University of Greifswald in 1920.