He was born on 10 July 1808 in Holzbaueregg near Grossflorian, about 60 km north-west of Maribor. He completed his primary and secondary education in Graz, where he also studied law and obtained a doctorate in philosophy.

He moved to Maribor in 1832. He taught German, history and geography at the Classical Gymnasium. He also learned Slovenian from Davorin Trstenjak, encouraging students to research ethnography and to speak and write in their mother tongue. He maintained in contact with Stanko Vraz, Davorin Trstenjak, Anton Zupančič, Anton Krempl and others.

While teaching at Maribor Classical Gymnasium, he devoted himself primarily to the research and collection of cultural heritage of Lower Styria. In 1845, he carried out an excavation at the famous Mithraeum in Ruše and made the first field inventory and sketch of the ironage hillfort at Poštela. As a collector he kept in his possession about 10 pottery lamps from antiquity, 4 relief plates from Ruše Mithraeum, glassware and bronze and copper coins from the period of the Roman Empire.

After his death, the objects passed to the Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, founded in 1811.