He continued writing poems for the rest of his life, and spent much of his youth wandering in the Black Forest.

He passed his state examinations at Carlsruhe, and received his license to practice medicine on 29 May 1849.

On the advice of a family friend to his father, he became a fugitive on 10 July 1849, Strassbourg being the initial target of his flight.

He arrived in the United States in September 1849, and settled in Detroit in October, where he began the practice of medicine on the 19th of that month.

He gave the oration for the celebration of the centennial of Friedrich Schiller's birth in Detroit in 1859, and was a founder of the German-American seminary, of which he was president and treasurer 1861-1872.

He prepared valuable articles, which were published in the U. S. consular reports, and include American Trade with Stettin, How Germany is Governed, and Labor in Europe.