He received his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Zurich in 1972 with a dissertation on the defense speech Pro Murena by Cicero (directed by Professor Heinz Haffter).
[2] From 1985 to 1988, he was post-doctoral assistant and academic advisor at the Leopold Wenger Institute for Ancient Legal History and Papyrus Research at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
In 1987, Bürge received his Habilitation at the University of Salzburg under Professor Theo Mayer-Maly with a work on 19th century French private law.
[1] In 1999, Bürge accepted a call as Professor of Law and Director of the Leopold Wenger Institute for Ancient Legal History and Papyrus Research at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as the successor of Dieter Nörr.
[2] In 2017, Ulrike Babusiaux, Peter Nobel, and Johannes Platschek edited a Festschrift entitled Der Buerge einst und jetzt (Zurich: Schulthess, 2017), in his honor.