Although Erich Zepler was enlisted for service in the German Army during the First World War, ill-health prevented him from being sent to a battlefield. Instead, he was able to study physics at the Universities of Bonn (1916-18) and Berlin (1919-20).

After graduating from Berlin University Erich Zepler undertook research work at the University of Würzburg,and was awarded the DPhil degree in 1922. He continued research at the Würzburg Institute of Physics until 1923, when he left to participate in pioneering industrial work on radio engineering at the start of the radio boom.