The son of an Army General from Württemberg, he studied at Leipzig University, receiving a Doctor of Law degree.
After a short period of time in Berlin with the central office of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he moved to Madrid, where he learned to speak fluent Spanish and organized an intelligence network closely associated, apparently, to German Ambassador Leopold von Hoesch.
[1] He was an avid automobile racer and became lost during an April 1936 race between Cairo and the Bahariya Oasis.
There is evidence however that von Stohrer presented his credentials as Ambassador of Germany at Salamanca on 27 August 1937 as ordered from Berlin.
He participated in the role during negotiations between the two countries, earlier than 8 July 1940, about Operation Felix, the proposed German seizure of Gibraltar.