 After his theological studies at the University of Münster, he was ordained a Pastor in Cologne in 1927.At the age of 23, he initially served the congregation Heart of Jesus in Cologne Mülheim, before becoming a vicar general to the congregation of St. Lambert at Mettmann in 1933.In 1941, he admitted to youth of the Catholic Kolping workers society that the war had long not been won, and that "it is likely that we (German troops) too committed war atrocities" in the Soviet Union.