Otto von Graeve served in the Prussian army, achieving the rank of Major before he settled in the small town of Gernrode in Anhalt.

[2][3] He visited the United States on 27 January 1914 aboard the USS George Washington, passing through New York City on his way to Vancouver Island to divine for radium.

[5] The Deutsche Levante-Zeitung reported in November 1915 that von Graeve had dowsed for water at the German temple colony, on the property of the Auguste Viktoria Foundation on the Mount of Olives and on that of a Syrian orphanage.

[3][5] In 1918, von Graeve is said to have found a mineral spring on the Schwedderberg near Gernrode, allegedly by using a divining rod, which was then used for the local outdoor pool.

[2] It was reported that during geological explorations undertaken in Thermalbad Wiesenbad between 1919 and 1921 von Graeve was present as a representative of the company Meyer und Co. and, in May 1920 he used his dowsing rod (through a bore hole made by the engineer Röttinger from Halle) to discover a spring that was 25 °C (77 °F), erupted 5.2 metres (17 ft) initially on tapping and produced 210 litres (55 US gal) per minute.