After the first few years at the Technical University of Munich, he changed to Technische Universität Berlin in 1934 where he finished his Diploma in 1937 at the group of Hans Geiger.

He followed his doctorate adviser Hans Kopfermann to the University of Kiel and after being drafted to the air force he finished his PhD in 1940 at Technische Universität Berlin.

During World War II, he researched isotope separation, which is necessary to produce fissionable material for use in making nuclear weapons.

He developed techniques for trapping charged particles in mass spectrometry by electric quadrupole fields in the 1950s.

He humorously referred to Wolfgang Pauli as his imaginary part if their surnames were considered as complex numbers.