In 1927 he was posted to the War Academy in Berlin-Moabit, where he later met Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.

He then served under General Günther Blumentritt as the chief quartermaster to the commander-in-chief in Paris, and he was involved in planning the coup attempt in the West linked to the 20 July plot with Colonel-General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel and his adjutant Lieutenant-Colonel Cäsar von Hofacker.

Along with other officers, he was called to a meeting in von Stülpnagel's office and was issued with prearranged orders for the arrest of senior Gestapo, SS, and SD personnel in Paris.

[1] After the failure of the coup attempt, he was arrested by the Gestapo, interrogated at length, and dishonorably discharged from the army by a court of honor.

He was sentenced to death by Roland Freisler and executed by hanging the same day at the Plötzensee prison in Berlin.