 During the First World War, he was a war correspondent for SPD newspapers like "Vorwärts" as well as for the "Berliner Tageblatt".Following the November Revolution in 1918, he started to work as a "Referent" at the "Reichskanzlei".In 1919, he worked for the Prussian "Staatskommissar" in Schleswig-Holstein, where he had grown up.