 His carving was so clever and graceful that it attracted attention, and procured him the good will of some art patrons, who sent him to Berlin in 1831.There he studied under the direction of Christian Daniel Rauch, Tieck, and Johann Gottfried Schadow, then the foremost sculptors of Germany.Achtermann, however, being of a profoundly religious character, was drawn irresistibly to Rome, where he arrived in 1839 and remained until the end of his life.