As a young man, he trained as a pharmacist in St. Johann an der Saar, followed by service in an army garrison hospital at Koblenz (1870–71).
He then studied pharmacy in Bonn, and later spent two years as a pharmacist in the town of Ettenheim.
From 1889 onward, he lived in Bonn, where focused his energies towards botanical research.
[4] As a botanist, he took excursions to Borkum, the Harz Mountains, the Black Forest, the Vosges and to Switzerland.
His work consisted of studies in the fields of floristics, phytogeography and plant systematics, of which he conducted systematic investigations of ferns and also plants from the genera Verbascum, Rubus, Salix, Rumex, Mentha, Rosa, Carex and Epilobium.