After attending cadet school in Potsdam and the Lichterfelde military academy, he spent 1919-20 in the Freikorps in Berlin and the Baltic states.
Nakon pohađanja kadetske škole u Potsdamu i vojne akademije Lichterfelde, razdoblje od 1919. - 1920. proveo je u Freikorpsu u Berlinu i baltičkim državama.