[1] From 1878 until 1888, this talented boy, who was gifted in music and drawing, attended the Thomasschule zu Leipzig, where especially Heinrich Stürenburg and Friedrich Eduard König had a strong influence on his intellectual development.
After graduating from high school, he studied theology and from 1889 philosophy and art history at the University of Leipzig and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München as a student of Anton Springer, Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, Moritz Carrière, Johannes Overbeck, Hubert Janitschek, Karl Lamprecht.
In addition to the practical implementation of his museum concept, the expansion of the collection holdings and the organisation of special exhibitions were the main focuses of his activities.
From the most diverse public and private collections, he brought together the antiquities in the rooms of the Old Town Hall and created a picture of urban culture, as only few German cities are able to present it more clearly and comprehensively.
[9] Shortly after the opening of the last department of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, which he had developed, the art historian and quiet patron of young artists and artisans, who worked tirelessly in spite of a severe gall and heart disease, died of a stroke in January 1917 at the age of 49.