[2] After completing his Abitur examinations in 1840, he studied medicine and science at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin and the Friedrichs-Universität in Halle an der Saale.

Following a stay at the psychiatric clinic in Hornheim [de] Bärensprung took a walk around the castle in nearby Kiel, where he fell from a narrow jetty into the sea and drowned.

[6][7] He introduced the practice of bedside thermometry (at the same time as Ludwig Traube)[8] and the discovery of the Erythrasma fungus also made significant contributions to the field of medicine.

[9] His report on the typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia made derogatory comments about parts of Silesian society, such as the "sluggish Slavic population" of the region, whom he accused of being kept "in ignorance and superstition" by the Catholic clergy and who were being "deceived by Jews".

[13] Among his written works was Atlas der Hautkrankheiten, an illustrated textbook on skin diseases that was edited and published posthumously by Ferdinand von Hebra in 1867.

[14][15] Although Bärensprung earned significant recognition in the field of dermatology, subsequent evidence has shown that his treatments were flawed, and he inadvertently mistreated his patients and himself.