Devoting himself initially to cabinetmaking, he became model, and was noticed by André Téchiné.
The third son of Karl Gotthilf Lindemann, a preacher who was rector of the municipal school, Wilhelm learned cabinetmaking, and in 1812 moved to Vienna where he worked as a fancy cabinetmaker, and later moved to Munich working as a pianomaker for about a year, and subsequently for piano manufacturers Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig and Rosenkranz in Dresden before establishing his own shop.