From 1907 to 1912, he studied medicine, philosophy and art history in Munich, Tübingen, Bonn and Berlin and became a doctor in 1913.

After the war, he worked as a doctor in Remscheid and Hechingen, where he focused on care for common people and prescribed treatment using naturopathic medicine.

In early 1932, he founded the Spieltrupp Südwest in Stuttgart, a communist agitprop group of lay actors that created controversial pieces about current topics.

In 1941, he gained Soviet citizenship and returned to Moscow, where he became a founder of the National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD).

He was cremated and honoured with burial at the Memorial to the Socialists (German: Gedenkstätte der Sozialisten) in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery, Berlin.