Bergmann started studying Biology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, but lectures by Adolf von Baeyer captured his interest and eventually persuaded him to switch to Organic Chemistry.
He continued his chemical studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, where he was taught by Emil Fischer.
[1] It was there that he worked with his former doctoral student, Leonidas Zervas, who eventually rose to vice-director of the institute and briefly succeeded Bergmann as director.
[2] Bergmann was nonetheless forced to abandon his institute due to his Jewish origin after the passage of the Civil Service Law and emigrated from Nazi Germany in 1933.
Two eventual Nobel Prize winners (William Howard Stein and Stanford Moore), as well as numerous postdoctoral students (including Klaus H. Hofmann) worked in his laboratory.