 At Halle he was influenced by the work of psychiatrists Karl Heilbronner (1869-1914), Gustav Aschaffenburg (1866-1944) and pathologist Karl Joseph Eberth (1835-1926).In 1906 he relocated to Freiburg as an assistant to Alfred Hoche (1865-1943).At the suggestion of Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), he succeeded Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915) as director of the "Anatomisches Laboratorium der Psychiatrischen und Nervenklivik" in Munich.