Wöhler was born in Eschersheim, Prussia. He began his medical studies at the Marburg University in 1820, but soon transferred to the University of Heidelberg. He received his M.D. in 1823 and began to study chemistry. He eventually studied for a year with Jöns Berzelius, a highly regarded chemist in Stockholm, Sweden. There he developed an interest in inorganic chemistry. Building upon the work of Hans Christian Oersted, Wöhler was able by 1828 to extract aluminum by heating a mixture of potassium and aluminum chloride in a platinum crucible. Wöhler used a similar technique to produce beryllium and went on to produce a variety of aluminum salts. Soon after, he created calcium carbide and was a close second in discovering vanadium.

Wöhler also disproved a major theory, vitalism, of his friend and mentor Berzelius. Vitalism stated that compounds were absolutely...