In 1952 he became the first president of the German Society for Electron Microscopy. In 1955 he received the Alfred Stock Memorial Prize, in 1964 the Seger Plaque, and in 1965 the Wolfgang Ostwald Prize. He was a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (1961) and the Leopoldina (1962). In 1968 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Munich.