Julius von Minutoli was born in Berlin in 1805. He was the son of Heinrich, a Prussian General from an Italian family, and Wolfradine von Schulenburg. He entered the civil service after having received a legal education. In those days, this entailed moving to various cities and regions around the country. Minutoli first went to Koblenz am Rhein but worked in Poznań from 1832. In 1839, he was appointed Commissioner of Police and Starosta of Poznań.

He was emphatically not the kind of person who typically performed these sorts of functions back then. He stood out as an exceptionally cultured individual with an engaging manner. He was also a versatile and talented sketcher, collector and traveller. He must have found Poznań to his liking because he left around 100 pictures of contemporary Poznań and its heritage. He also learned Polish. In 1845-1846, Minutoli supervised the detection and suppression of a plot for independence which was to have encompassed all three partitions.

Minutoli was appointed Director of Police in Berlin shortly afterwards. Minutoli was retired and put on a pension in 1848. This official then embarked on his next stage of life as a diplomat. He was consul general of Spain and Portugal, and later Persia, where he died in1860.