1913/1914 study at the Akademie in Kassel with Hans Olde and Rudolf Siegmund. 1914 voluntary military service. 1919-1921 study at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Weimar. 1921 transfer to the Bauhaus in Weimar, study with Lyonel Feininger. 1921 stay in Italy.

1929 due to an invitation from Arnold Bode participation at the exhibition „Vierte große Kunstausstellung Kassel 1929 – Neue Kunst in der Orangerie“.

1930 awarded the Rome-Prize 1931/32 stay on Ischia and at the Villa Massimo in Rome. Afterwards freelance painter with alternating stays between Berlin, Rhineland, Southern Germany and the Baltic Sea. In 1949 resettlement to Munich, since 1951 regular stays on Ischia in Summer and in Winter in Munich. 1951 honorary member of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in München, 1955 member of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Berlin.

Participation at the first documenta, documenta 2, and documenta 3.