A Saxon born in Schäßburg (Sighişoara), a town in the Habsburg province of Transylvania (now Romania), Johann Ackner first studied at the college in his hometown.

After finishing his university studies, he traveled by foot through large parts of Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland.

He traveled several times between 1832 and 1847 to visit areas of ancient Roman and Dacian history, as well as sites of mineral findings and petrifactions in Transylvania and neighbouring countries.

In 1851, Johann Michael Ackner was elected as member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

[1] In 1856 he initiated the archaeological research at the ancient Dacian town of Cumidava (now Râșnov), where the Romans built a castrum after the conquest of Dacia.