Menzel was born to German parents in Breslau, Prussian Silesia (now Poland), on 8 December 1815. His father was a lithographer and intended to educate his son as a professor; however, he would not thwart his taste for art. After resigning his teaching post, Menzel senior set up a lithographic workshop in 1818. In 1830 the family moved to Berlin, and in 1832 Adolph was forced to take over the lithographic business on the death of his father. In 1833, he studied briefly at the Berlin Academy of Art, where he drew from plaster casts and ancient sculptures; thereafter Menzel was self-taught. of Berlin published his first work in 1833, an album of pen-and-ink drawings reproduced on stone, to illustrate Goethe's little poem, "Kunstlers Erdenwallen". He executed lithographs in the same manner to illustrate "Denkwürdigkeiten aus der brandenburgisch-preussischen Geschichte"; "The Five Senses" and "The Prayer", as well as diplomas for various corporations and societies.