Krause joined as the German Navy as an enlisted member, and after training to be a commissioned officer was promoted to Leutnant zur See in July 1979.

Between 1981 and 1986, Krause served as a watch officer aboard U-boats as well as a cadet platoon commander on the training ship Deutschland.

[1] After leaving the training center command, he was a unit head at NATO Joint Headquarters North East from 1999 to 2001, in Karup, Denmark.

[2][4] In April 2007 Krause became the Director of the German Navy's newly formed Centre of Excellence for Operations in Confined and Shallow Waters (COE CSW).

With the establishment of this office, the German Navy intended to respond to the shift in focus of naval operations from the high seas to coastal areas.