Leutelt was born the son of a teacher in Josefsthal in Jizera Mountains, northern Bohemia, then a part of the Austrian Empire, now the Czech Republic. He was the great grandson of the miracle doctor Josef Johann Kittel. Leutelt settled in Leitmeritz to train at a teacher's training college and work as a teacher at the elementary school of his father. As a senior teacher, he took over the local elementary school in the nearby town of Untermaxdorf (Dolní Maxov) first but later at the training college. At this institution he came in contact with glass workers and he chose this craft as his life's study. In 1906, he founded a museum in Untermaxdorf in which he documented the history and economy of the Upper Kamenice valley. After 1922 he moved as a pensioner near Gablonz an der Neiße.