He was also a Minister of the Free State of Brunswick, and Generalforstmeister (General Forest Master) in the government of Nazi Germany.

He performed military service with the Reichswehr from May 1919 until March 1920 as a volunteer with the Freikorps "Landesjäger", headed by General Georg Maercker.

[3] After the Nazi seizure of power at the national level, Alpers was active in the persecution of political opponents during the Gleichschaltung (coordination) process of taking over the German states.

This force was directly answerable to Ministerpräsident Dietrich Klagges and consisted of SA, SS and Der Stahlhelm men.

On 11 March, Alpers ordered his SS men to break into two Jewish-owned warehouses disguised as robbers and vandalize the properties, and then in a public address he cast the blame on the Communists.

Alpers was temporarily suspended from the SS following complaints of excessive violence made against him during the takeover of Brunswick.

[5] In November 1937, Alpers was assigned to the personal staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, and he became a member of the Lebensborn Society that year.

In his capacity as a State Secretary, Alpers was a participant in a meeting of the Economic Leadership Staff East on 2 May 1941 in Berlin.

[9] Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa, Alpers again served with Reconnaissance Group 22 on the eastern front from June 1941 to January 1942.