After finishing secondary school in Braunschweig, he studied theology and philology at the universities of Göttingen, Berlin, and Leipzig.

[3] He returned to Braunschweig in 1868 to become a teacher for Ancient Greek, Latin, history, and geography at the prestigious Martino-Katharineum secondary school.

[5] In 1874 Koch and his colleague August Hermann organized what is believed to be the first-ever football match in Germany, between pupils from their school Martino-Katharineum.

[9] The new game was quickly adopted by other schools in Braunschweig and spread to other cities during the late 1870s, including Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, and Göttingen.

Theodore Steinway and Heinrich Büssing, among others, a member of the social club Die ehrlichen Kleiderseller zu Braunschweig.