The son of the painter Richard Bockenheuser and his wife Selma, née Boeling, initially studied civil engineering before he became interested in acting. He received two years of training at the City Theater in Danzig and in Dresden under the tutelage of the court actor Adolf Winds . Bockenheuser began his stage career under the pseudonym Kurt Brenkendorf in 1903 in Danzig. His subject was initially that of the youthful hero and lover, also during his stage stations in Lübeck , Hanover , Neustrelitz , Ulm and Reval in the Russian Tsarist Empire and St. Petersburg .