He was - very short - enganged in the revolutionary events of the revolution of 1848. In 1849 he quit his job as an apothecary and became a full-time journalist and writer. In order to support his family he took a job as a writer for the Prussian intelligence agency "Centralstelle für Preßangelegenheiten" which was meant to influence the press towards a German national cause. Again he specialised in British affairs, and the agency sent him as correspondent to London for a couple of years. His wife and two sons followed him there. While still in London he quit his government job and, on his return to Berlin, became editor of the conservative "Kreuzzeitung" (newspaper).