Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School
, a landscape painter and the son of one of his father's business acquaintances, gave him his first lessons, after which he attended the Bremen School of Applied Arts. Then, following Bertelsmann's recommendation, he went to the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School where he became a Master Student of Fritz Mackensen. Every summer while he was a student (from 1910 to 1914), he would join Bertelsmann at the Fischerhude art colony in Worpswede, prolifically painting everything of interest in the local surroundings. It was there that he came under the influence of the Barbizon school and Van Gogh.