[3][6] He studied law at the universities of Göttingen and Königsberg and joined the Prussian civil service in 1905, at first at the Department of Trade and Commerce in Berlin.

Von Braun was from an old noble family and bore the title of Freiherr (equivalent to Baron and translated as such in English).

[4] In September 1917, Braun became the first chief press officer for the Reich Chancellery[7][8] and later the head of the political department of the military administration of Vilnius.

Following the conclusion of World War I, Braun was appointed Commissarial Police President of Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) in 1919.

[9] Braun returned to his family's manor in East Prussia and was active in several agricultural organisations like the Raiffeisen cooperative.