Berneker was trained in Graz and at the Vienna art academy. He set up a studio of his own in the Habsburg capital and produced his best works there. After the end of his military service he moved to Ljubljana where he led a frugal existence. In addition to bronzes and marbles he executed numerous drafts for public monuments and tombstones. From his early realist ideas Berneker moved to Rodin-like modernist sculpture and explored psychology of his sitters, dramatic compositions, the relationship between the worked and unworked material and between the smooth and rough surface.