In 1918, he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and was a participant in the November Revolution and a member of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council Here he was elected commander of the guard regiment in Magdeburg. From 1919 to 1926 he worked as a tanner in Burg, became a member of the KPD and became KPD chairman in Burg, works council chairman, honorary city council and from 1926 to 1928 KPD trade union secretary. He was a member of the Gau Board and the Reich Tariff Commission of the German Leather Workers' Association. From 1928 to 1929 he attended the International Lenin School in Moscow and was then political leader of the KPD in Magdeburg for Magdeburg-Anhalt until 1931 and then until 1933 political leader of the East Prussia district. In the years 1932 and 1933 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament.
