After attending the Gymnasium am Ostring in Bochum,[1] Huelsenbeck became a medical student on the eve of World War I.

[3] Huelsenbeck's autobiography Memoirs of a Dada Drummer gives detailed accounts of his interactions with many key figures of the movement.

However idealistic Huelsenbeck and his companions were, their challenge Dada is German Bolshevism had unfortunate repercussions later, when the National Socialists denounced all aspects of modern art as Kunstbolschewismus.

He changed his name to Charles R. Hulbeck and practiced medicine and psychoanalysis at the Karen Horney Clinic in Long Island, New York.

Finding Aid for Richard Huelsenbeck papers, the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.