Bauer's parents were pious Lutherans who wanted Bruno, their favorite son, to become a minister. They managed, at no small financial sacrifice, to enroll both Bruno and Edgar in the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium of Berlin to begin the study of theology. From the outset of his academic career, Bruno proved himself to be committed to the life of the mind; as the historian of philosophy Johann E. Erdmann later remarked, he was "einen Grübler aus sich zu machen, dessem seelische Empfindlichkeit durch eine schwächliche körperliche Gesundheit noch gesteigert werden mochte" (devoted to making himself into a brooding intellectual, whose mental capacity was made to rise above a weak and unhealthy body).
In the spring of 1828 Bauer entered the University of Berlin to continue his theological studies. He quickly acquired a reputation as a brilliant student. In July 1829 he received the faculty prize offered for the best student essay on Immanuel Kant's theory of the beautiful, a subject proposed by the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Bauer's essay was further honored by Hegel's comment that Bauer had "schlagend aufgezeigt" (strikingly presented) his thesis.
Although he attended the lectures of the theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher and the biblical scholar August Neander, he found that he could not follow them.
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