Emden was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland, the eldest of three children. He studied mathematics and physics in Heidelberg and Berlin and completed his BS Physics in 1885, and his PhD in Physics in 1887 at the University of Strasbourg, which at the time was in the German Empire. His thesis was on the vapour pressure of salt solutions. He was appointed professor of physics at the Technical University of Munich in 1889. He became associate professor of physics and meteorology at the Technical University of Munich (1907–1920) and in 1907 published the classical work Gaskugeln: Anwendungen der mechanischen Wärmetheorie auf kosmologische und meteorologische probleme.