Ingarden was born in Kraków, Austria-Hungary, on February 5, 1893. He first studied mathematics and philosophy at the Lwów University under Kazimierz Twardowski, then moved to the University of Göttingen to study philosophy under Edmund Husserl. He was considered by Husserl to be one of his best students and accompanied Husserl to the University of Freiburg, where in 1918 Ingarden submitted his doctoral dissertation with Husserl as director. The title of his thesis was "Intuition und Intellekt bei Henri Bergson" ("Intuition and Intellect in Henri Bergson"). Ingarden previously suggested that he transfer to Lwów and write a new dissertation under Twardowski due to an increasing tension between Germany and Poland but Husserl refused.