Career

While serving as a director of a sisal plantation in German East Africa, he published papers on the local avifauna (from 1909 to 1913). As a P.O.W. of the Russians during World War I, he learned the Russian language, a skill set he subsequently used to translate Russian ornithological works into German. During his career, he was associated with ornithological research performed at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.

In 1923 he was elected a corresponding fellow of the American Ornithologists" Union.

Elminia albonotata subcaerulea (1923), a subspecies of the white-tailed crested flycatcher. Vidua togoensis (1923), the Togo paradise whydah.