In 1941, Nolte was excused from military service because of a deformed hand, and he studied Philosophy, Philology and Greek at the Universities of Münster, Berlin, and Freiburg. At Freiburg, Nolte was a student of Martin Heidegger, whom he acknowledges as a major influence. From 1944 onwards, Nolte was a close friend of the Heidegger family, and when in 1945 the professor feared arrest by the French, Nolte provided him with food and clothing for an attempted escape. Eugen Fink was another professor who influenced Nolte. After 1945 when Nolte received his BA in philosophy at Freiburg, he worked as a "Gymnasium" (high school) teacher. In 1952, he received a PhD in philosophy at Freiburg for his thesis "Selbstentfremdung und Dialektik im deutschen Idealismus und bei Marx" ("Self Alienation and the Dialectic in German Idealism and Marx"). Subsequently, Nolte began studies in "Zeitgeschichte" (contemporary history). He published his "Habilitationsschrift" awarded at the University of Cologne, "Der Faschismus in seiner Epoche", as a book in 1963. Between 1965 and 1973, Nolte worked as a professor at the University of Marburg, and from 1973 to 1991 at the Free University of Berlin.