Born in Leipzig, Collum received high school education between 1921 and 1929. He continued from 1930 to 1934 at the Church Music Institute in Leipzig, where he studied organ with Karl Straube and Günther Ramin, piano with Carl Adolf Martienssen, choral conducting with Kurt Thomas, and musical composition with Johann Nepomuk David and Fritz Reuter.Walter Clemens, Werner Busch: In memory of Fritz Reuter. In Heinz Wegener (editor's note): Gedenkschrift Fritz Reuter (Scientific journal of the Humboldt University of Berlin. Social and linguistic science series 15 (1966) 3). pp. I-VI, here: p. V. Already by 1927 he had become deputy organist at the St. Matthäikirche Leipzig. From 1932 to 1935 he served as assistant to Ramin, Thomaskantor at the Thomaskirche. His appointment in 1935 as principal organist, "Kreuzorganist", at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden signalled the beginning of his creative period; he remained in that post until his death in April 1982 at the age of 67. His successor as Kreuzorganiste was Michael-Christfried Winkler.
