His father was the publicist and trade union official Lothar Erdmann, his mother Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke, the painter August Macke's widow.
Already during his school days at the Humanistisches Gymnasium In Berlin, he paid visits to the composers Paul Hindemith, Ernst-Lothar von Knorr and Harald Genzmer.
Erdmann was co-founder of the Arbeitskreis für Neue Musik at the Berlin University of the Arts.
[3] From 1947, Erdmann taught at the Pädagogische Hochschule Berlin [de], where he became head of the music seminar two years later.
In addition, Erdmann composed numerous Zupfmusik [de] (music for plucked instruments) works.