He served as a professor at the University of Halle, headed the museum there and published the Handbuch der Entomologie (1832–1855) before moving to Argentina where he worked until his death.

He studied medicine at Greifswald (1825–1827) and Halle (1827–1829), and in 1830 went to Berlin to qualify himself to be a teacher of natural history.

In 1848, during the revolutionary excitement, he was sent by the city of Halle as deputy to the national assembly, and subsequently by the town of Leibnitz to the first Prussian chamber.

He traveled to Brazil from 1850 to 1852, partly supported through the efforts of Alexander von Humboldt was cut short by a leg injury.

[3] In 1861, he divorced his wife and went to live in Argentina, founding the Institute at the Museo Nacional in Buenos Aires.

Burmeister headed the Academy of Sciences, formed from the scientific faculty of Argentina's National University of Córdoba.