Riemer was born in (, Province of Saxony) near Magdeburg, the son of a pastor.Otto Riemer: Erhard Bodenschatz und sein Florilegium Portense. Fr. Kistner & C. F. W. Siegel, Leipzig 1928, . After attending the (1913-1921), he studied musicology, education and philosophy at the universities of Marburg, Leipzig and Halle. He listened to Hermann Stephani, Nicolai Hartmann, Heinz Heimsoeth, Hermann Abert, Friedrich Blume, Felix Krueger, Hans Joachim Moser, , Theodor Ziehen and Ottomar Wichmann, among others. From 1924 to 1926, he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, where Carl Adolf Martienssen (piano) and Fritz Reuter (theory) were among his teachers. In Halle, he took singing lessons with Hans Klemann. In 1927, he was trained by Arnold ScheringRalph-Jürgen Reipsch: Telemann-Pflege in Magdeburg vom Ende der 1920er Jahre bis 1945. In Carsten Lange, Brit Reipsch (eds.): Vom Umgang mit Telemanns Werk einst und jetzt. Telemann-Reception in Three Centuries. Report on the international scholarly conference, Magdeburg, 15 and 16 March 2012, on the occasion of the 21st Magdeburg Telemann Festival (Telemann Conference Reports. Vol. 19). Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim among others 2017, , , here . awarded a doctorate Dr. phil. at the University of Halle-Wittenberg with the dissertation Erhard Bodenschatz und sein Florilegium Portense .
