After studying technical sciences in Prague (where he also became active with the Corps Austria, but later left) and Berlin, Schwarzkopf succeeded in inventing the drawn tungsten filament in 1911 in the Italian light bulb factory Lampada Zeta in Alpignano near Turin.

[3] During World War I, Schwarzkopf first served in a Bohemian regiment, then went to the reserve officer school in Innsbruck in Tyrol, and then to the southern front.

[4][5] In 1920, with his friend Richard Kurtz, he founded the Naamlooze Vennootschap Vereenigte Draadfabricken (NVVD) in Nijmegen, Netherlands for the production of tungsten wire.

[6][7] After the Anschluss, his assets were confiscated by the National Socialists, and the Planssee company was aryanized and the ownership was given to Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW).

[3] In 1947, he and his family returned to Austria and filed a restitution request for the company as well as claims for compensation for the stolen private properties, which was granted in 1952.