Gentz was born at Breslau. His father was an official, his mother distantly related to the Prussian minister Friedrich Ancillon. On his father's transfer to Berlin as director of the mint, the boy was sent to the Joachimsthal gymnasium there; his brilliant talents, however, did not develop until later, when at the University of Königsberg he fell under the influence of Kant. But though his intellect was sharpened and his zeal for learning quickened by the great thinker's influence, Kant's categorical imperative did not prevent him from yielding to the taste for wine, women and gambling which pursued him through life. When in 1785 he returned to Berlin, he received the appointment of secretary to the royal Generaldirectorium, his talents soon gaining him promotion to the rank of councillor