His collection of fourteen Italian eighteenth-century paintings was donated to the Gemäldegalerie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna in 1922.

First professor of art history in both Bonn and Leipzig; wrote first synthetic of the history of art. Springer studied art and philosophy at the universities of Prague, Munich und Berlin, in 1846. He briefly taught art history in Prague, making a research trip to Italy before moving to Tübingen where he met the theologian Albert Schwegler (1819-1857) and the aesthetician Friedrich Theodor Vischer (1807-1887). In Tübingen Springer became involved in politics, mounting a successful campaign against the ban on theatrical performances.