[2] His association with the Prussian royal family began when he served as aide-de-camp to Crown Prince Frederick William as a captain.

After resuming his regular career, he successively commanded a Guards regiment and brigade, before taking up leadership of the 19th Division at Hannover in 1905.

He was responsible for personnel matters of the Prussian army and during First World War he was one of the closest aides to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

"[2] On the other hand, as the First World War progressed and the Kaiser withdrew into an atmosphere of "fear of the world and flight from reality", he worked with Georg Alexander von Müller, Chief of the Imperial Naval Cabinet, at great lengths to persuade him to spend more time on the business of the government in Berlin.

After 1915 he was ready to moderate Germany's aims to achieve peace, but still demanded that the Reich should retain Belgium or at least the Belgian ports for future use against Britain.