 He studied at the universities of Jena, Berlin and Bonn, obtaining his habilitation in 1866 at the University of Heidelberg.Later on, he worked as a professor at the universities of Freiburg, Prague (from 1874) and Strasbourg (from 1877).Beginning in 1883, with Wilhelm Wiegand, he was editor of the journal ""Strassburger studien; Zeitschrift für geschichte, sprache und litteratur des Elsasses"".