Weidenmüller studied in Bonn and from 1956 to 1957 in Heidelberg under J. Hans D. Jensen, who was his doctoral thesis advisor for his thesis on stripping reactions (Zeitschrift für Physik Bd.150, 1958, 389), in which the nuclei used as projectiles lose nucleons to the nuclei used as targets.
Weidenmüller is known above all for his work in the theory of nuclear reactions.