He became involved in German nationalism early on, fighting with the Freikorps Oberland in 1919 against the Bavarian Soviet Republic, in the Ruhr area and Upper Silesia, and earning the Silesian Eagle, first class.

[2] In November 1923, he was a participant in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch, and would later be awarded the Blood Order.

He also sat on the supervisory boards of the Deutsche Industriebank in Berlin and the Berlinische Lebensversicherung [de], a large life insurance company.

[4] Later assigned to the main office of the SD, the Nazi Party's intelligence service, he rose to SS-Oberführer on 10 September 1939.

He was a member of the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft (Circle of Friends of the Economy), a group of German industrialists whose aim was to strengthen the ties between the Nazi Party and business and industry.