 In 1922, he completed his Habilitationsschrift on Albrecht Dürer under Adolph Goldschmidt at the University of Berlin.For some time, Kauffmann worked at the Gemäldegalerie Berlin under Wilhelm von Bode and in the print room at The Hague, where he was an assistant of Cornelis Hofstede de Groot.In 1924 he worked at the German Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.