There Lemcke gained his habilitation in 1862 with his book Zur Einleitung in die Ästhetik ("An Introduction to Aesthetics").
Just two years later he accepted a position at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, where he was given a full professorship of aesthetics and art history.
After the establishment of a chair in 1870 at the Polytechnikum Aachen, Lemcke moved to that city in 1876, where he was the first professor of art history and general aesthetics.
From 1892 to 1895 he succeeded Jakob Johann Weyrauch as rector of the university and at the same time became the temporary director of the Museum of Fine Arts, now the State Gallery in Stuttgart.
Ever after his stay in Munich, Lemcke was a sought-after writer of lyrics for major composers of his time such as, for example, Johannes Brahms who set his poem "Verrat" as No.