Career
He also wrote under the names Franz Larsz and Frank Ryberg. From 1909 he worked as a journalist and soon started writing for Der Sturm and Die Aktion. Otto Gross was a large influence upon him
In 1921 he travelled with January Appel to participate in the 3rd World Congress of the Communist International in 1921 as a delegate of the Communist Workers Party of Germany.
This involved hijacking the Steamship Senator Schröder to go to Murmansk, Soviet Russia, rather than fishing near Iceland.
He participated in the March Action (March 1921) and was captured but escaped first to the Netherlands and then went on to the Soviet Union. He then started work for the Workers International Relief.