Bersch was born in Zweibrücken, Germany, and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. He came to the United States in 1860, living and working in Memphis, TN, Washington, DC (where he worked in Matthew Brady's photography studio), and Baltimore, Maryland.
Otto von Bismarck, was the most prominent European diplomat of the 19th century, responsible for the unification of the German states under Prussian rule.