 At 15, he began attending the University of Freiburg, where he studied jurisprudence.During the preparatory philosophical courses, Rotteck got to know the first Protestant professor of the university, Johann Georg Jacobi, whose teaching and society were major influences on him.Like many of his contemporaries, Rotteck was sympathetic with the strivings of the French for freedom in the French Revolution, but his sympathy with the Revolution was quickly extinguished by its raw realities.