Born in Rödingen, Heinz Günther Nesselrath studied classical philology in the University of Cologne from 1976 to 1981. Between 1981 and 1989 he held an assistant professorship at the Cologne Classics Institute, between 1989 and 1992 a Heisenberg Scholarship granted by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ("German Research Foundation"). He reached Habilitation in 1987.