[1] He held lower level command positions until June 1935 when he took a staff posting as adjutant to August Heissmeyer, the head of the SS Main Office in Berlin.

In addition, from 11 August 1944 he was the Wehrmachtbefehlshaber (military commander) of all Wehrmacht forces in Belgium and Northern France.

Confronted with the rapidly advancing offensive of Allied forces following the D-Day invasion, he immediately began the process of transporting prisoners to concentration camps, including Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Neuengamme and Sachsenhausen.

The train returned and the prisoners were released to the International Red Cross the same day that the British Army entered the city.

Temporarily placed in a staff position, he was transferred back to the Waffen-SS for front line duty with the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" in December 1944, and died in combat operations in Zavidovići in the Independent State of Croatia (today, in Bosnia and Herzegovina) on 14 April 1945.