Born in Sorau, von Wendt studied medicine at the Universities of Halle and Göttingen, earning his doctorate at the latter institution in 1762.
Following graduation he successively worked as a physician in the town of Genthin, served as a Stadtphysicus in Pless (Upper Silesia) and was a personal physician to the Prince of Anhalt.
In 1778 he was appointed professor of medicine at the University of Erlangen, where he founded a clinical institute later the same year.
[1] In 1808–09 he published the journal Annalen des Klinischen Instituts auf der Akademie zu Erlangen.
[2] From 1811 to 1818 he was president of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina.