In the beginning, he studied under Jacob Volhard; then, after Volhard left for the University of Erlangen, Hermann Emil Fischer became his tutor. In the summer of 1880 Knorr worked with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen at the University of Heidelberg, and later assisted Adolf von Baeyer in Munich. When Emil Fischer became professor at the University of Erlangen, he asked Knorr to follow him.[1][2]