After finishing his courses at Gymnasium Paulinum in Westphalia, he attended the Roman Catholic boarding school Collegium Augustinianum Gaesdonck, where Hermann Dingelstad, later Bishop of Münster, was his teacher.

Having a great influence on church politics because the bishop trusted him completely, he had a certain view concerning reforming Catholicism that even later he would never give up.

Despite the royal government's disapproval of his ultramontane views, it was impressed by his wise and polite ways, his excellent manners and his noble descent.

His papal confirmation followed on 27 July and then his ordination as bishop by the Archbishop of Cologne, Anton Fischer, on 26 October in Münster.

When he arrived in Cologne at the height of the labour union strike, his main concern were the Catholic workers' organizations.

He was convinced of the legitimacy of the First World War and in 1915 went to Rome personally to explain the German government's view on the Belgian question.

Therefore, he travelled to the Western Front in the summer of 1916 and continued to maintain good contacts with Kaiser Wilhelm II even after the fall of the German Empire.