Born: July 26, 1809, Belzig, Saxony.
Died: March 1, 1883, Halden, Norway.
Buried: Os Cemetery, Halden, Norway.
Friedrich was the son of Christian Gottlieb Reissiger, a cantor in Belzig.
He learned piano and violin from his father and represented his father as an organist in his youth. At age 13, he went to the Thomasschule in Leipzig and sang in the Thomanerchor.
Starting in 1830, he studied theology in Berlin, and music under Siegfried Dehn. By 1834, he was a member of the Berlin Sing-Akademie.
Around 1840, Reissiger moved to Norway and became an orchestra conductor in Kristiania (Oslo). At the same time, he worked as an organist in a Catholic church, and conducted the Kristiania Musical Association orchestra.