During the first two years of First World War, he ran Germany's espionage, propaganda and sabotage operations in the Ottoman territories of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria in preparation for the two Turco-German attacks on the Suez Canal in Sinai in 1915 and 1916.
During the summer of 1916, he served as an aerial intelligence observer with the German air unit Fliegerabteilung (Flight Detachment) 300 in southern Palestine and Sinai.
He finished out the war as the government minder for Abbas II of Egypt, that country's former khedive, or ruler, during the latter's visit to Germany and Belgium.
In December 1937 he joined the Nazi Party, and was tasked with removing officials with Jewish ancestry and wives.
By mid-1943 he had returned to the Reich and was promoted to head of the Oriental Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and directly oversaw the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini.