Stein was born in Niemegk, near Potsdam, Brandenburg. He completed his studies in 1841, conducting doctoral work at the University of Berlin. On May 29, 1844, in Berlin, he married Emma Johanne Couard Ottilie. The couple had nine children. The next to last, daughter Adelheid von Stein, married Joseph Neuwirth.
Career
Stein's scientific work focused on invertebrates, and mainly on Diptera, as well as single-celled animals. His work on infusoria became the basis for all subsequent research in this area. Stein was appointed as Curator of the Zoological Museum at the University of Berlin, in 1849. From 1850 to 1855, he was professor of zoology and botany at the Academy of Forestry in Tharandt, Saxony, 20 km south-west of Dresden. Tharandt had one of the leading forestry schools in Germany. Formal education in forestry began about 1840 when private forestry schools were established. These were the outgrowth of the old master schools. The forestry college at Tharandt developed from Cotta Master School. Though not of the same order, Tharandt had close connections with the French National School of Forestry, which had been established in Nancy, France, in 1825. The work at Tharandt, under Stein's supervision was of a very high order, thoroughly professional and of very high technical standards. In 1855, he became professor at the Charles University in Prague, where he worked until retirement. He served as Rector of the university in the 1875–76 academic year.
De Myriapodum partibus genitalibus, nova generationis theoria atque introductione systematica adjectis. Dissertatio inauguralis zoologica quam in Alma Universitate Litteraria Friderica-Guilielma publice defendet auctor, Berlin: Brandes et Klewert, 1841
Die lebenden Schnecken und Muscheln der Umgegend Berlins, Berlin: Reimer, 1850
Die Infusionsthiere auf ihre Entwicklungsgeschichte untersucht, Leipzig: Engelmann, 1854
Der Organismus der Infusionsthiere nach eigenen Forschungen in Systematischer Reihenfolge, Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann
* I. Abtheilung. Allgemeiner theil und Naturgeschichte der Hypotrichen Infusionsthiere, 1859
* II. Abtheilung. 1) Darstellung der neuesten Forschungsergebnisse über Bau, Fortpflanzung und Entwickelung der Infusionsthiere 2) Naturgeschichte der Heterotrichen Infusorien, 1867
* III. Abtheilung. Die Naturgeschichte der Flagellaten oder Geisselinfusorien.
**1. Hälfte, Den noch nicht Abgeschlossenen allgemeinen Theil nebst Erklärung der sämmtlichen Abbildungen enthaltend, 1878
** 2. Hälfte, Die Naturgeschichte der arthrodelen Flagellaten, 1883
Über die Hauptergebnisse der Infusorienforschungen. Ein Vortrag, Vienna: Staatsdruckerei, 1863
