Grünberg received a diploma in 1962 from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. Then he studied at the Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany, where he received his diploma in physics in 1966 and his Ph.D. in 1969. From 1969-1972, he did studied at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Later he joined the Institute for Solid State Physics at the Jülich Research Centre, where he became a leading researcher of magnetism until he retired in 2004.