After graduating from the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich in 1913, he studied archaeology, art history and natural sciences.
He was an adjunct professor in Munich from 1928[3] but was dismissed by the Nazis in 1936 for political reasons.
Hirmer wrote a number of works of botany including a book and many articles on phyllotaxis.
In 1948 he, together with his wife Aenne (1912-2017),[1] founded[4] the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliches Lichtbild, or Society for the Scientific Photographic Image.
Architektur, Plastik, Malerei in drei Jahrtausenden (Egypt: Three Millennia of Architecture, Sculpture and Painting) for which he provided the photographs.