After initially receiving his education from tutors, he attended the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin and at age 17 joined the Dragoon Guards Regiment for a year.

From 1824, his career led him from the post of Regierungsrat and legal advisor in Cologne to that of Oberregierungsrat 1829 in Königsberg und Merseburg.

He was then made "regional president" (Regierungspräsident) in Trier in 1834, and six years later Karl vom Stein zum Altenstein appointed him to the ministry for education and cultural affairs and as member of the Prussian Council of State in Berlin.

From the 22 October he took up this position permanently and from that day onwards led the department for religious Protestant, education and health affairs in the ministry of Johann Albrecht Friedrich von Eichhorn.

When Eichhorn resigned all his posts due to the political consequences of the Revolutions of 1848, Ladenberg led the ministry, also under the ministers Maximilian von Schwerin-Putzar and Johann Karl Rodbertus, who held office very briefly.