 He received his doctorate at the University of Marburg from Heinrich Drerup for his dissertation "Zur Entwicklung und Funktion des Konsolengeison im Hellenismus und in der frühen Kaiserzeit" (On the development and function of the Konsolengeison in the Hellenistic and early Imperial period).After that he received a scholarship from the German Archaeological Institute and was employed by them in Berlin and Rome.From 1979 to 1983, von Hesberg was an Assistant lecturer at the University of Munich and he received his habilitation there in 1983 for "Formen privater Repräsentation in der Baukunst des 2. und 1.