 He became a professor of philosophy at Leipzig in 1825 and a professor of archæology in 1830 (a position he held until 1855).From 1826 to 1829 he visited the principal museums of Germany, France, England, and the Netherlands and collected copies of Egyptian inscriptions and Coptic manuscripts.In 1840, on his initiative, a sarcophagus was purchased that was to be become the centerpiece of the future "Ägyptisches Museum der Universität Leipzig".