After jurisprudential studies, in 1791 Bentzel-Sternau became government counsellor of the Electorate of Mainz under Karl Theodor von Dalberg in Erfurt.

After the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt had been occupied by the German powers allied against Napoleon in the autumn of 1813 - it was not dissolved until the summer of 1814 - Bentzel-Sternau withdrew into private life.

He lived alternately in Schloss Emmerichshofen [de] and his country estate on Lake Zurich.

Visionary, the author predicts a development that was soon caught up in the horrors of the anti-Jewish Hep-Hep riots in Germany.

Bentzel was apparently aware of the pronounced anti-Jewish dynamics and the great potential for violence that had accumulated against the Jews in the period after the Congress of Vienna - spurred on by inflammatory writings and pamphlets published in many places.

[5] In his literary publications he shows himself to be an "ingenious, outspoken and intelligent humorous writer" (Meyer 1858), often compared with Jean Paul.