He was born in Löwenberg, in the Prussian Province of Silesia.
He studied in the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts under Hermann Schievelbein.
He became his master's assistant and completed his plans for the bronze memorial once in the Dönhoffplatz (now the Marion-Gräfin-Dönhoff-Platz), Berlin.
Soon after Schievelbein's death Pfuhl settled in Charlottenburg.
He made a few portrait busts, but his more typical products were colossal groups or reliefs.