He was entered in the military school at the age of thirteen,[1] but from 1772 to 1780 he was educated as a sculptor, together with Philipp Jakob Scheffauer (1756–1808). Initially, he studied under Adam Bauer, and, starting in 1775, at the military academy at Stuttgart. In his eighteenth year he carried off the prize at the Concours with his model of Milo of Crotona.