[1] Johann Bernhard was destined for the Bavarian public service, his elder brother being a hereditary member of the Upper House in the parliament of Württemberg.

He was educated at the universities of Strassburg and Munich, but he incurred the displeasure of King Ludwig I of Bavaria by the part he played as second in a duel, and in 1828 he transferred himself to the Austrian diplomatic service.

Returning to Europe in 1847, on the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 in Vienna he was of great service to State Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich, whom he accompanied and assisted in his flight to England.

In May 1859, on the eve of the Second Italian War of Independence (1859), he was appointed Austrian minister of foreign affairs and minister-president, surrendering the latter post to the Archduke Rainer in the following year.

The project had been suggested to the emperor Franz Joseph by his son-in-law, the hereditary prince of Thurn und Taxis, and the preliminary arrangements were made without Rechberg being informed.

Bismarck, however, insisted that the question of the ultimate destination of the duchies should be left open; and, when he backed his argument with the threat that unless Austria accepted his proposal Prussia would act alone, Rechberg gave way.

Rechberg yielded so far as to assure the duke's representative at Vienna that Austria was determined to place him in possession of the duchies, but only on condition that he did not sign away any of his sovereign rights to Prussia.