[1] He fought at the Battles of the Isonzo and on the Eastern Front in Galicia, Bukovina and Romania.
[2] After his military service, he became a member of the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic (DSAP).
[3] He took part in founding of the Social Democratic Workers Youth League and served as chairman until 1920.
[2][3][4] He took part in the founding of the Socialist Youth International, and served as a member of its bureau between 1923 and 1932.
[3] 1941–1942 he went to London to negotiate with the Czechoslovak government-in-exile president Edvard Beneš on the future of the Sudeten Germans.
[1][3] He served as editor-in-chief of the SPD organ in Baden Württemberg, Allgemeine Zeitung in Stuttgart/Mannheim, 1949–1951.
[3][5] He was part of the West German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 1956–1967.