In the spring of 1933, in the wake of growing antisemitism and the rise of the Nazis in Germany, he fled to England. His assets were seized by the Nazis, his name struck from the list of the German Architects' Union, and he was excluded from the Prussian Academy of Arts. In England he formed an architectural practice with Serge Chermayeff, which continued until the end of 1936 and together they designed two important private houses - Cohen House and Shrubs Wood - and the De La Warr Pavilion, an entertainment and arts complex in the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, commissioned and paid for by the local landowner.