Together with his four siblings Anne (* 1866), Carl (* 1867), Luise (* 1868) and Wilhelm (* 1879) Kraut, he grew up in a Lutheran family of lawyers.

He was an officer of the Imperial German Army during the First World War, a veteran of the Schutztruppe, and the second-in-command of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.

In the early months of the war, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck planned for Kraut, alongside a column of Schutztruppe, to capture Mombasa and secure the Uganda Railway, based on Kraut's pre-war experience in the area as a part of the Anglo-German boundary commission.

[5] During the attack on Longido and Namanga, Kraut helped push back the British forces into a retreat.

By August 27, Kraut's force of 760 Germans had withdrawn from the town, allowing Northey to capture it two days later.

Kraut was a part of the Freikorps, in a unit commanded by Lettow-Vorbeck, and helped in suppressing the Spartacist Revolt.