He was the second child and eldest son of the Count George of Sternberg (December 10, 1888, Prague – July 27, 1965, Bruneck) and his wife (married April 6, 1921, Chotělice) Countess Kunigunde of Mensdorff-Pouilly (January 11, 1899 – November 19, 1989).
After World War II, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, where he studied until 1949, but was not admitted to graduation for political reasons.
On Wednesday, February 25, 1948, he took part in a march of students to Prague Castle to President Edvard Beneš, who protested against the communist approach.
Basic training with the artillery regiment in Litoměřice lasted only a few weeks, then he was transferred to the Auxiliary Technical Battalion.
For five years, first as part of the PTP and later as a civilian he worked as a miner at the President Gottwald Mine in Hrdlovka near Duchcov and later at Velkodole Čs.
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, he emigrated with his wife and son, first to Westphalia to his brothers and then to Vienna, where he worked in a food concern from 1 December 1968; from Procurator (1973) developed into Deputy General Manager.
After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he returned to Czechoslovakia and in 1992, as a pensioner, he restituted Český Šternberk Castle and with it in its vicinity over two thousand hectares of fields and meadows (agricultural enterprise Šternov).