 He received his doctorate in Indology in 1928 from the University of Göttingen, and habilitated there in 1932.From 1932 to 1935 he taught German and French at the University of Allahabad.He taught at Breslau from 1936 to 1940, and received tenure at Halle in 1941, but in the same year he was drafted to the German army, where he worked as an interpreter.