His education from 1908 through 1912 included time in the United Kingdom, studying under Raymond Unwin, and absorbing the lessons and principles of the garden city movement.

He finished a study at the Technical University of Munich, working with Friedrich von Thiersch and Theodor Fischer, a co-founder of the Deutscher Werkbund.

May's developments were remarkable for the time for being compact, semi-independent, well-equipped with community elements like playgrounds, schools, theatres, and common washing areas.

These settlements are still marked by their functionality and the way they manifest egalitarian ideals such as equal access to sunlight, air, and common areas.

Catherine Bauer Wurster visited the buildings in 1930 and was inspired by the work of May[1] In 1930 May took virtually his entire New Frankfurt-team to the USSR.

May's Brigade amounted to a task force of 17 people, including Margarete Lihotzky, her husband Wilhelm Schuette, Arthur Korn, the Hungarian-born Fred Forbat, the Swiss Hans Schmidt, the Austrian-born Erich Mauthner and the Dutch Mart Stam.

The promise of the "Socialist paradise" was still fresh, and May's Brigade and other groups of western planners had the hope of constructing entire cities.

[2] May worked as a farmer in Kenya, but soon sold his farm and opened an architectural office, designing commercial buildings, hotels and schools.

Several of the most famous German postwar settlements and reconstruction plans, such as New-Altona in Hamburg and Neue Vahr in Bremen, are associated with his name.

His youngest son, Thomas May, moved from the family home in Kenya in 1947 to obtain an engineering degree at Syracuse University, USA.