His father, who also had a family from a previous marriage, was a lawyer and at the time of his birth a Privy counciller (Hofrat) at the court in Weimar, Georg Adam Struve.

Meanwhile, his elder brother was building a career at The Hague as a Chemist and Alchemist, working for wealthy individuals, and invited Burkhard to join him as an assistant.

Struve was obliged to sell his by-now valuable book collection and sacrifice his paternal inheritance in order to ensure his elder brother's freedom.

[3] He quickly irritated the university teaching staff with his habit of delivering private lectures on German History: these were popular with students.

In 1712 he was nominated "Sachsen-Weimarischen Rath Historiographus" In 1730 he received the title "Hof-Rath des Hoch-Fürstlichen Sammt-Hauses Sachsen", also adding a professorship in Civil and Contract Law.

His four volume history first issued in 1712, and subsequently expanded and reissued as "Corpus historiae Germanicae a prima gentis origine ad annum usque 1730" was popular, also appearing in German as the "Erläuterte teutsche Reichs-Historie".