Werner von Biel moved to Berlin in the mid-1930s and worked for an aeronautical construction company. Through Georg Hertzberg, a Jewish man of Polish origin, he met the Jewish student Manfred Alexander. Their friendship continued until Alexander was deported to Minsk with his parents on November 11, 1941. With the aid of a German railroad employee, he managed to escape back to Berlin at the end of 1941. Werner von Biel was immediately willing to take in his friend, although this put his wife and children at risk. It was also dangerous because his apartment in Berlin-Charlottenburg was opposite a police station, and the escaped Manfred Alexander was a wanted man.
Biel gave his friend money and helped him to get out of Germany. At the end of January 1942, Alexander managed to escape with his wife Helene and her mother via Luxembourg, Belgium, and France to Switzerland. Werner von Biel was then drafted into the Wehrmacht and later put in a British prisoner-of-war camp.
In 2004 he was honored posthumously by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations, nominated by Manfred Alexander.