Cornel Zwierlein was born in 1973 in Hamburg and grew up in Bonn. He studied history, German philology, dramatics, Greek and law in Munich and Tours. In 1997 he completed his Maîtrise in Tours in history, in 1998 his Magister Artium in German philology, and in 1999 his first state examination in law, University of Munich. His PhD in modern history – supervised in Munich and Tours – was completed in 2003.

Following his PhD, Zwierlein worked as assistant professor at the University of Munich until 2008 at the History department. In 2008 he was appointed as junior professor for environmental history at the Ruhr-University Bochum. In 2009 he was affiliated as member and speaker of the Young College of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Science.