At first he devoted himself to astronomy, but coming under the influence of H. G. Magnus, he turned his attention to physics, and graduated in 1864 with a thesis on the depolarization of light.

[3] In 1867 he became privatdozent in Berlin University, and in the following year was chosen professor of physics at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zürich, where he was the teacher of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen; then, after a year or two at Würzburg, he was called in 1872 to Strasbourg, where he took a great part in the organization of the new university, and was largely concerned in the erection of the Physical Institute.

In 1866, he developed a valuable method for the investigation of aerial waves within pipes, based on the fact that a finely divided powder, lycopodium for example, when dusted over the interior of a tube in which is established a vibrating column of air, tends to collect in heaps at the nodes, the distance between which can thus be ascertained.

[4] In light, Kundt's name is widely known for his inquiries in anomalous dispersion, not only in liquids and vapours, but even in metals, which he obtained in very thin films by means of a laborious process of electrolytic deposition upon platinized glass.

He also carried out many experiments in magneto-optics, and succeeded in showing what Faraday had failed to detect, the rotation under the influence of magnetic force of the plane of polarization in certain gases and vapours.