 Between 1807 and 1811 he served as editor of the dictionary of German language, then he was a librarian in Breslau.He was the professor of diplomatics, sphragistics and heraldry at the Bonn University from 1822 and was one of the founders of modern scientific heraldry.Bernd introduced hatching for some additional tinctures such as Umbra, Rotgelb, Stahlblau and Blutfarbe.