After the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for service with the Imperial German Army that August and fought with the 31st (1st Thuringian) Infantry Regiment on the western front until 1917.

[2] After the Nazi seizure of power at the national level, they instituted a policy of Gleichschaltung (coordination) by which they sought to assert their control over all the German Länder.

The next day, 6 March, under pressure from the Nazis, the four Social Democratic members of the governing Senate resigned, including Bürgermeister (mayor) Paul Löwigt [de].

On 11 March, seeking even more direct control by the central government, Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, used the authority of the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 to appoint Völtzer as the Reichskommissar for Lübeck.

[4] Under Völtzer's tenure, on 3 April the Bürgerschaft was reconstituted on the basis of the Reichstag election results, giving a majority of seats to the Nazis and their coalition partners, the German National People's Party.

[4] On 16 June 1933, under the auspices of the Reich Ministry of Labor, Völtzer was named the Trustee of Labour for the Nordmark region, encompassing Lübeck, Hamburg, Mecklenburg and the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein.