Kekulé was born in Darmstadt, Germany, on September 7, 1829. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Giessen, intending to major in architecture. Instead, he became enraptured by the lectures of Justus von Liebig and changed his major to chemistry. After leaving Giessen in 1851, he studied for a year in Paris, France, and briefly worked at a private laboratory in Switzerland. He completed his education with a two-year stint as an assistant to John Stenhouse (1809-1880) at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, England.

When he returned to Germany, he became a lecturer at the University of Heidelberg and then professor of chemistry first at Heidelberg (1855-1858), then at the University of Ghent (1858-1867), and finally at the University of Bonn (1867-1896).

Kekulé was not a skilled experimentalist and only a mediocre teacher. His major contributions to chemistry involved theoretical ideas, specifically on the structure...