Ernst Bargheer, 24 years old at the time, assumed the guardianship of his younger brother and sisters and at his insistence Eduard trained to become a primary school teacher.
During these early years, Eduard Bargheer not only benefited from his artistic training at the college of arts and crafts in Hamburg-Lerchenfeld but also embarked upon his own private studies, which he continued throughout his entire life.
It was about this time that he became closely involved in the circles around the art historians Aby Warburg and Erwin Panofsky.
In 1932/33, Bargheer used a grant from the City of Hamburg to live in Paris for several months, and there he made friends with Heinrich Heydenreich, a student of Panofsky's.
In the same year he bought a small fisherman's cottage – now the Bargheer Haus – on the slopes of the Süllberg in Blankenese, Hamburg.