Bücher attended a private preparatory school with a Pastor in nearby Dauborn and 1863–1866 the Catholic Gymnasium in Hadamar, where he was primus omnium [citation needed].
Bücher studied at the University of Bonn (also part of Prussia), concentrating on History and Classics, with the aim to become a Gymnasium teacher [citation needed].
(Ph.D.) in History and Epigraphy with a (published) dissertation entitled De gente Aetolica amphictyoniae participe [citation needed].
After spending some time as a gymnasium teacher and journalist, especially in Frankfurt where he was famous for his liberal, anti-Bismarck views, Bücher decided to opt for academe and took his Habilitation at the University of Munich [citation needed].
In the same year, Bücher received, and accepted out of family considerations, a call to the Chair of Economics and Statistics at the University of Basel as successor of Alphons Thun.
In 1889/90, Bücher accepts a call to the economics chair at the Technical Superior School in Karlsruhe, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, previously held by Eberhard Gothein [citation needed].
In 1893, he published Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft (The Rise of the National Economy), his most important book, and the foundational study of non-market (exchange and gift) economics.
In 1919, during the abortive German revolution, Bücher published a booklet about the socialization of factories as well as his highly successful autobiography, Lebenserinnerungen (Life Memories) [citation needed].