 In 1875, he earned his doctorate at the University of Strassburg, and afterwards was an assistant to Ludwig Laqueur (1839-1909) at Strassburg and to Carl Friedrich Richard Förster (1825-1902) at Breslau.Later he moved to Hamburg, where he became head of the department of ophthalmology at Allgemeines Hospital in 1905.Wilbrand specialized in the field of neuro-ophthalmology and did extensive research involving the pathology and physiology of the eye.