[4] Between 1930 and 1932, he performed 416 times in the sold-out operetta Im weissen Rössl (White Horse Inn) in the Großes Schauspielhaus of Berlin.
[6] In 1931, 17-year-old Herbst met the married 21-year-old Gottfried von Cramm in the Berlin nightclub Eldorado when the latter was at the beginning of his career as a tennis champion.
In an effort to reduce his sentence, von Cramm tried to shorten the duration of his liaison with Herbst to the time before the aggravation of the anti-gay laws that took place in 1935.
In an exculpatory statement, he claimed to be blackmailed by Herbst to avoid a harsh sentence for a breach of exchange control regulations.
His mother had intervened and met Hermann Göring, who was a member of the Rot-Weiss Tennis Club where von Cramm played.