 He studied natural sciences and medicine at several German universities, receiving his PhD at Leipzig in 1875 and his medical doctorate at Giessen in 1880.Afterwards, he settled into a medical practice in Berlin, and in the meantime, received training in urology as a private assistant to Ernst Fürstenheim (1836–1904).In 1889 he obtained his habilitation, and shortly afterwards worked as a lecturer at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin, where in 1903 he became an associate professor of internal medicine.