After acting as tutor for a year at Amsterdam he returned to Berlin to study physics and chemistry. In 1876 he established himself as privat-docent at the Bauakademie of Berlin, subsequently connecting himself in the same capacity with the Technische Hochschule at Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin), at which institution he was appointed lecturer (1894) and professor (1896) of physics. He died in Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad).