On 9 July 1907, he received his doctorate from the University of Bonn with a dissertation written under Berthold Litzmann on Adalbert Stifter's novella technique.
[7] In terms of works, various essayistic writings on Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan George, Theodor Fontane, Gustave Flaubert, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and Thomas Mann followed.
)[8] The extent to which Bertram distanced himself inwardly and outwardly from National Socialism over the next twelve years cannot be conclusively assessed.
In September 1945, an internal denazification commission at the university concluded that Bertram was "proven to be a man who belongs to the nourishers of National Socialism".
In addition, he wrote various so-called Spruchdichtungen, i.e. aphorisms that follow one another and stand in a certain context (Der Wanderer von Milet, Sprüche aus dem Buch Arja, Deichgrafensprüche), which in this form have a unique position in the German literature of the 20th century.