 After working as legation secretary in Stockholm and in Paris, he was the Prussian envoy in Brussels from 1831, from 1841 in Paris and in Vienna from 1845 to 1848, where he acted entirely in accordance with Metternich's politics.He became an important advisor to king Frederick William IV of Prussia during the revolution of 1848 .He encouraged the King to grant concessions to liberals and support German unification under Prussian leadership.