Tollens attended school at the
Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in
Hamburg where he was influenced by his science teacher,
Karl Möbius. After graduating in 1857, Tollens started an
apprenticeship in
pharmacy. He finished in 1862 and began studying chemistry in Göttingen in
Wöhler's laboratory, then supervised by
Friedrich Konrad Beilstein and
Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig. In 1864, Tollens submitted his thesis and received his Ph.D. without a defense. The latter was possible through the intercession of Wöhler so that Tollens could accept and begin an attractive job at a bronze factory. Tollens left the job after six months and joined the group of
Emil Erlenmeyer at the
University of Heidelberg for six months. He later worked with
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz in Paris and, for 11 months, as chief of the chemical laboratory at the
University of Coimbra in Portugal. Unable to resist the call of his former professor Wöhler, Tollens returned to Göttingen in 1872 and there he remained in various positions until he died in 1918. It was during this final time in Göttingen that he started his work on
carbohydrates, which yielded structures of several sugars, the
Tollens' reagent, and most of his publications. ==References==