In 1813 he joined the Walmodensche Korps as a lieutenant and was made adjutant to the Prussian colonel August Ludwig Ferdinand von Nostitz, on whose campaigns he distinguished himself several times.

After the war, he dedicated himself to diplomacy, working under the minister Wilhelm von Humboldt, when the latter led the negotiations on determining the borders of the German territories in Frankfurt am Main.

He followed von Humboldt to London in 1817 as embassy secretary and in 1819 to Berlin, where he took over the section for trade and maritime affairs in the Prussian Foreign Office.

In autumn 1841 he was made envoy to the Bundestag in Frankfurt am Main, but already on 2 April 1842 was appointed Foreign Minister of Prussia in place of Mortimer von Maltzan.

He and the Minister of War Hermann von Boyen belonged to the more liberal tendency in the cabinet, but had only a negligible influence on politics in general.