 In 1945, he was captured by U.S. troops in Württemberg.After his release in 1946, he returned to Halle, where he remained until 1953, when he moved to Frankfurt for a professorship in Indo-European studies, against the will of the GDR authorities.From 1954 to 1960 he was in Yale, and from 1960 to his retirement in 1972 in Tübingen as professor for Religious studies and Indology.