 From 1869 to 1872 he was assistant in the medical hospital at Breslau under Hermann Lebert; from 1872 to 1873 in the surgical hospital at Halle under Richard von Volkmann; and from 1873 to 1877 again at Breslau in the medical polyclinic, under Lebert and Michael Anton Biermer.He became privat-docent at Breslau University in 1876; an assistant professor at the University of Jena in 1877; and was called in 1888 to the University of Königsberg as a professor of medicine, his final position.In 1891, with Adolph Strümpell, Wilhelm Heinrich Erb and Friedrich Schultze (1848-1934), he founded the journal ""Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde"".