In 1807, he succeeded George Shaw as assistant keeper of the department of natural history in the British Museum.
[1] He later became keeper of geology and mineralogy, and turned his attention to minerals and fossils, arranging the recently acquired collection of Mr. Greville.
In 1837, following a House of Commons Select committee report on the British Museum, the Department of Natural History was divided into three branches, with Konig being put in charge of the Mineralogical and Geological branch.
[citation needed] Besides writing various papers for journals, Konig was associated with John Sims in the issue of Annals of Botany from 1805 to 1807.
[1] He described many fossils in the British Museum in a classic work entitled Icones fossilium sectiles (1820–1825).