On completing his university studies he was chosen by C. A. Brandis to accompany him on a journey to Greece for the prosecution of archaeological researches.

[2] After holding a professorship at Göttingen and undertaking a further journey to Greece in 1862, Curtius was appointed (in 1863) ordinary professor at Berlin.

In 1874, he was sent to Athens by the German government and there concluded an agreement by which the excavations at Olympia were entrusted exclusively to Germany.

The Turko-Russian War (1877–78) delayed the process of reaching an agreement between Greek and German governments for undertaking excavation at Olympia.

[1] Curtius's imperial connections helped him to convince the government to nationalize the German Archaeological Institute in 1874, and open a branch in Athens.

A landmark agreement in the history of archaeology was signed by Curtius on 25 April 1874 at Athens, which mandated the Germans to leave all finds in Greece.