[1] In his autobiography, he writes that "I had the feelings of having lived here in my previous life and felt from the first day on at home.
However, because of Nazi Germany's prohibition of interracial marriage, they did not marry until March 1945, near the end of World War II.
He was appointed Chair of Sinology at the University of Hamburg, and was also Director of the Seminar for Language and Culture in China.
[1][2] After his wife died in 1988, Franke moved to Petaling Jaya near the University of Malaya, where he had students and friends.
[1] Franke was internationally known as a China expert with research focuses on the Ming dynasty and history of the Chinese in Southeast Asia.