Hertzberg, who came of a noble family which had been settled in Pomerania since the 13th century, was born at Lottin (present-day Lotyń, a part of Okonek) near Neustettin.

[1] After 1739 he studied, chiefly classics and history at the gymnasium at Stettin, and in 1742 entered the university of Halle as a student of jurisprudence, becoming in due course a doctor of laws in 1745.

Shortly afterwards Hertzberg entered the government service, in which he was first employed in the department of the state archives (of which he became director in 1750), soon after in the foreign office, and finally in 1763 as chief minister (Cabinetsminister).

in Preussen bewogen haben, sich wider die Absichten des Wienerischen Hofes zu setzen and deren Ausführung zuvorzukommen ("Motives which have induced the king of Prussia to oppose the intentions of the court of Vienna, and to prevent them from being carried into effect"), and in his Mémoire raisonné sur la conduite des tours de Vienne et de Saxe, based on the secret papers taken by Frederick the Great from the archives of Dresden.

He championed this latest creation of Frederick the Great's mainly with a view to an energetic reform of the empire, though the idea of German unity was naturally still far from his mind.

Though the Fürstenbund failed to effect a reform of the empire, it at any rate prevented the fulfilment of Emperor Joseph II's old desire for the incorporation of Bavaria with Austria.

Hence it was chiefly owing to Hertzberg that in 1787, in spite of the king's unwillingness at first, Prussia intervened in the Netherlands in support of the stadtholder William V against the democratic French party.

But the opposition between him and the new king, which had already appeared at the time of the conclusion of the triple alliance between the Netherlands, England and Prussia, became more marked in the following years, when Hertzberg, relying upon this alliance, and in conscious imitation of Frederick II's policy at the time of the first partition of Poland, sought to take advantage of the entanglement of Austria with Russia in the war with Turkey to secure for Prussia an extension of territory by diplomatic intervention.

[3] According to his plan, Prussia was to offer her mediation at the proper moment, and in the territorial readjustments that the peace would bring, was to receive Danzig and Thorn as her portion.

His personal position became increasingly difficult, as deep-rooted differences between him and the king were revealed during these diplomatic campaigns: Hertzberg wished to effect everything by peaceful means, while Frederick William II was for a time determined on war with Austria.

At the conferences at Reichenbach in the summer of 1790, this opposition became more and more acute, and Hertzberg was only with difficulty persuaded to come to an agreement merely on the basis of the status quo, as demanded by Pitt.

The king showed himself more and more personally hostile to the ex-minister, and in later years pursued Hertzberg, now quite embittered, with every kind of petty persecution, even ordering his letters to be opened.

After 1783 these discourses caused a great sensation, since Hertzberg introduced into them a review of the financial situation, which in the days of absolutism seemed an unprecedented innovation.