Born on June 15, 1948 in Würzburg, Germany, Gumbrecht graduated from the Siebold Gymnasium of his hometown in 1967, also having studied at Lycée Henri IV in Paris. He specialized in Romance Philology and German Literature, but also studied philosophy and sociology during his university years, which took him to Munich, Regensburg, Salamanca, Pavia, and Konstanz. After receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Konstanz in 1971, he became Assistant Professor, acquiring the "Venia legendi" (Habilitation) in Romance Literatures and Literary Theory in 1974.