1893–1897 Apprenticeship as room- and decorative painter at the decorative master painter Gollmar & Franke in Leipzig, at the same time attending an evening semester at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig and receiving private lessons by the animal painter Fedor Flinzer in Leipzig
1897–1898 1898 Student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig
1898–1899 Studies in Zwönitz (Erzgebirge)
1898 First exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig
1899–1902 Worked as a decorative painter, journeyman, at Gollmar & Franke in Leipzig, with a half-year break in Berlin at the painting school of Paul Schultze-Naumburg
1900

Married Milda Thum, 7 children

1902 Exhibition at the Kunstverein in Leipzig
1902–1921 Discovered by Prof. Theodor Schreiber, director of the Leipzig Museum. Artistic creations in Saaleck at "Saalecker Werkstätten", the painting school of Prof. Paul Schultze-Naumburg, first as student, then as a teacher
1905 First study tour to Italy
1914–1918 Soldier in the 1st world war
1921–1945 Appointed Professor of Landscape Painting at the Govt. College of Fine Arts in Weimar, succeeding Theodor Hagen
1943 Award of the Goethe Medal for Art and Science
1945–1956 Mainly private commissions in his studio in Upper Weimar, and extensive restoration work of historic buildings in Weimar during the Goethe year in 1949 and beyond.