He studied classical philology and archaeology at the universities of Innsbruck, Vienna and Berlin.
From 1908 to 1910, via a travel grant from the Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI), he conducted research in Italy, Greece and Asia Minor.
[1] In 1913/14, on behalf of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, he did excavations in Palestine (Shechem, Nablus) with German theologian Ernst Sellin.
In 1926/27 he returned to Palestine, and performed additional excavatory work with Ernst Sellin at Shechem.
With architect Max Theuer, he conducted investigations of the Belevi Mausoleum in Turkey.