Austria won no medals for the first time since 1995, with Felix Gottwald being outsprinted for the team bronze and finishing 23 seconds behind the winners in the sprint.
The top three skiers after the ski jumping part of the competition were Kircheisen, Anssi Koivuranta of Finland, and Maxime Laheurte of France.
The real star of the competition was Ackermann, who started fifth after ski jumping and would have the eighth-fastest cross country time to win the event by 8.5 seconds.
American Bill Demong had the second fastest time in the cross country part of the competition to edge Koivuranta for the silver.
The defending champions were the Norwegian team of Petter Tande, Håvard Klemetsen, Magnus Moan, and Kristian Hammer.
Finland took the lead after the ski jumping section, having more than forty seconds on the other teams, and led until the third leg of the relay when Tino Edelmann caught up with Jaakko Tallus.