Volker Press studied history and English from 1957 to 1965 at the University of Munich.
He completed his doctorate in 1966 with Friedrich Hermann Schubert with a dissertation on the Electorate of the Palatinate in the confessional age.
In 1980 he moved to a post at the University of Tübingen where he taught medieval and modern history until his sudden death in 1993.
The focal points of Press's research included the imperial knights, the ecclesiastical territories seized by the imperial nobles, and the position of the Habsburg emperors in the Holy Roman Empire and in their home territories.
His voluminous library was acquired by the Charles University in Prague.