Passing his exams with great distinction, Much gained his PhD in 1887 with the dissertation On the Prehistory of Germany (Zur Vorgeschichte Deutschlands), and completed his habilitation in Germanic studies in 1892–1893 with a thesis on Germania.

[1] Since 1901, was Assistant Professor of Celtic and Germanic Antiquity and Scandinavian Language and Literature at the University of Vienna.

[1] Much believed the Germanic peoples had originated in Scandinavia, to where their ancestors had migrated at an unknown point in time from the Proto-Indo-European homeland.

He was in contact with the Pan-German movement of Georg Ritter von Schönerer, and was a member of the Deutsche Gemeinschaft.

Much opposed the politicization of scholarship, and for this reason, he protested vigorously against appointing Nazis to positions at the University of Vienna.