Von Kempelen studied law and philosophy in Pressburg, and attended the Academy in Győr, Vienna and Rome, but mathematics and physics also interested him. Besides German he spoke Hungarian, Latin, French, Italian, and later, some English and Romanian, which he learned during his travels in England and assignments in The Banat. He applied for his first position with the Habsburg Court in 1755 as a supernumary clerk in the Hungarian Court Chamber in Pozsony. Later he became a secretary (1757), a Councillor of the Court Chamber (1764), Director of Salt Mining (1765), Second Commissioner of the Constitutional Commission for the Region of Banat (1769), and finally Imperial-Royal Court Councillor (1787). During this time he also helped transfer the University of Nagyszombat to Buda Castle, and oversaw the building of the Court Theatre in Buda's former Carmelite monastery.