Johannes Herbert was a freestyle wrestler in the bantamweight class. This class was one of the highest quality classes in the then-Third Reich at the time. Jakob Brendel, Ferdinand Schmitz and non-Olympians Justin Gehring, Willy Möchel and Hermann Fischer were his strongest national opponents. Nevertheless Herbert qualified for the 1936 Berlin Games and won the bronze medal after losing to the eventual champion Ödön Zombori from Hungary by a fall. In 1938 he was second at the German Greco-Roman Championships. After World War II Herbert remained active as an international referee.