Starting in 1852, Recklinghausen studied medicine at the Universities of Bonn, Würzburg, and Berlin,[2] earning his doctorate at the latter institution in 1855.

At the age of 32 years old, Recklinghausen was already a Professor of Pathological Anatomy; a habilitation was unnecessary because of his academic and scientific background.

The theme of his inaugural address was "De corporibus liberis articulorum" ("On the loose bodies of the joints").

His son Heinrich Jacob von Recklinghausen later acquired a name for himself as a doctor, blood pressure researcher, and philosopher.

On April 20, 1872, Recklinghausen moved to the re-established Strasbourg, Kaiser Wilhelm University in the imperial country of Alsace-Lorraine.

[4] During his time at Strasbourg he helped to recruit a number of important people to the school, such as anatomist Wilhelm von Waldeyer-Hartz (1836–1921).

[3] In 1882 he released a monograph that reviewed previous literature done by Robert William Smith 33 years prior, added two new cases, and characterized the tumors of neurofibromatosis type I or NF-1 as neurofibromas, consisting of an intense commingling of nerve cells and fibrous tissue.

[6][7] He is credited with establishing a method for staining lines of cell junctions with silver, a procedure that led to Julius Friedrich Cohnheim's research on leukocyte migration and inflammation.