Born in Rheinsberg, he studied in Berlin at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule (Spandau academy of church music) with Gottfried Grote, Ernst Pepping and Herbert Schulze. He was cantor at St. Lamberti, Hildesheim from 1954. He included contemporary music, for example in 1957 a concert for Trinity Sunday with works including works by Johann Nepomuk David, Burkhard's Die Sintflut, and Pepping's setting of the Gospel for the Sunday, from the Gospel of John, and a setting of the Epistle, "O welch eine Tiefe des Reichtums".
