 Gerstner passed his in 1935 and embarked on the next stage of the legal traineeship (""""), starting with six months at the district court in Rheinsberg.That was followed by a six month period working at a solicitors' office in Berlin that specialised in cases that involved economics, where (despite the growing prevalence of state mandated antisemitism since 1933) two of the senior lawyers were of Jewish provenance.For the next three years, between 1936 and 1939, he worked in Paris and the German foreign trade mission.