In 1929–1933 he was educated at the University of Göttingen, where he became a pupil of Max Born, with a break for the academic year 1930–31, when he worked as a school teacher; he also studied in Paris and Zurich for some time.

After Born moved to Edinburgh, the young scientist continued work under the direction of Paul Dirac and in 1936 received his PhD with a thesis "The Notion of Conjugate Variables in the Calculus of Variations for Multiple Integrals and its Application to the Quantisation of Field Physics".

During this time, he wrote a long article giving the quaternion equations for the special relativity and for the motion of a charged particle emitting electromagnetic radiation.

There he, along with many colleagues (Max Perutz, Hermann Bondi, Walter Heitler, Klaus Fuchs) lectured at the improvised university organized by interned scientists.

Meanwhile, his sister Helene with the help of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning has taken a number of steps to bring back her brother; Born, Dirac, Paul Ewald, Ralph Fowler and other colleagues wrote on his behalf.