He studied at the Polytechnikum in Hannover with the influential architect-professor Conrad Wilhelm Hase between 1868 and 1873 (with an interruption in 1870/71 for military service followed by a trip to Italy).

[1] A three-year period working in Wiesbaden was followed by an international study tour round Europe, taking in France, Spain, Italy and Malta, after which he settled, in 1880, in Berlin.

Sources note that whereas other architects contented themselves with imitating former styles in their revivalist designs, Grisebach was never afraid to apply his imagination creatively and generously, and - especially with domestic commissions - to incorporate elements of cosiness.

[3] Perhaps the most striking of his creations is the Schlesisches Tor overground metro station in Berlin,[4] though it must be acknowledged that this development also carried unmistakably the architectural signature of August Dinklage who was working for/with Grisebach at the time.

[3] Close by he built another house, at Fasanenstraße 39, featuring a "Bremen-style" front gable, and using the ideas of his client Richard Cleve, who also had incorporated various pre-fabricated elements, sourced primarily from The Netherlands, such as reliefs, bay-windows and pillars.

Newly wealthy industrialists from the west were also among his clientele, including the textiles magnate Paul Andreae for whom in 1882/83 Grisebach designed the flamboyant two-storey Gut Mielenforst "manor house" in the hills east of Cologne.

The client was the Remscheid entrepreneur-contractor Alfred (Fritz) Hasenclever, who wanted a prominently sited Historicist-style building as a belated wedding gift for his wife, Olga.