He studied medicine at the Universities of Marburg and Würzburg, receiving his doctorate in 1832 with the dissertation De dignitate lithontritiae.

He then served as an assistant to Karl Friedrich Heusinger at the medical clinic in Marburg,[1] followed by work as a physician in his hometown of Fulda (from 1835).

[2] By way of a recommendation from University of Heidelberg surgeon, Maximilian Joseph von Chelius, he was appointed to the chair of surgery at Dorpat as successor to Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov.

At Dorpat, he was succeeded by his son-in-law, renowned surgeon Ernst von Bergmann.

Adelmann is credited with introducing a procedure that involved flexion of the limb(s) as a treatment for arterial bleeding.