He was born at [[Hohenheim]] in [[Württemberg]], on December 19, December 1831. He first went to the [[University of Tübingen]], where he graduated with a Ph.D. in 1853. The results of his work was published in ''Die Juraformation Englands, Frankreichs und des südwestlichen Deutschlands'' (1856–1858). He went to the [[Paläontologische Museum München|Palaeontological Museum]] at [[Munich]] in 1858 and became an assistant there. It was in 1860 that he became the Professor of Palaeontology at the [[University of Munich]]. Then, a year later, he became the director of the [[Palaeontological Collection]]. Of his later works, it can be said that the most important was ''Paläontologische Mittheilungen aus dem Museum des Königlichen Bayerischen Staates'' (1862–1865). He died on 23 December 1865 at the age of 34. The [[wrinkle ridge]] [[Dorsum Oppel]] on the Moon is named after him,<ref name="nasa" /> as is the fossil [[prawn]] genus ''[[Albertoppelia]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=New genera and species of shrimps (Crustacea: Decapoda: Dendrobranchiata, Caridea) from the Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones of S Germany |author=Günter Schweigert & Alessandro Garassino |url=http://www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/stuttgart/pdf/b_pdf/B350.pdf |journal=Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde Ser. B |volume=350 |pages=33 pp |year=2004 }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
