Launitz was born into a Baltic German family in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire.
However, his interest in art intervened, and on the advice of an uncle, sculptor Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz, he went to Rome.
[7] He executed many funerary monuments in Frankfort Cemetery, including the Kentucky War Memorial, which was unveiled in 1850.
[8] He created a monument to General George H. Thomas in Troy, New York; the Broken Mast Monument, which commemorates those "Who periled their lives in a daring profession and perished in actual encounter with the monsters of the deep," in Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor; and many other similar examples of his work are found in New York's Greenwood Cemetery.
[2][3] Two further examples of his work are found at Maple Hill Cemetery, Huntsville, Alabama — the tombstone of Dr. David Moore, and that of two of his children.