Born in Berlin, Rebling, who came from a Prussian officer's family, his father was a Major,[1] began to learn to play the piano at the age of 7.

He later received lessons from Lydia Lenz in Berlin-Friedenau and won 1st prize at the "Interpreters" Competition of the German Artists' Association in 1929.

In 1932, he followed Ernst Busch and Hanns Eisler live on stage and got to know the Dutch art historian Leo Balet and subsequently began to study Marxism.

In the same year, he met his wife, the Jewish actress, dancer and singer Lin Jaldati in The Hague, with whom he performed Yiddish songs in the post-war period.

He attracted attention in 1937 with an article about De burgerlijke muziekopvattingen van Willem Mengelberg, which appeared in the monthly magazine Politiek en Cultuur.

On 11 October 2007, Rebling was honoured by the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem with the title "Righteous Among the Nations" for helping the refugees.

After the German occupation of the Netherlands ended, Rebling first became music editor of the daily newspaper of the Dutch Communist Party, De Waarheid.

In 1952, he moved with Lin Jaldati and his two daughters Kathinka and Jalda to Berlin (GDR), where he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in 1960.

Until his death, he was a member of the Party of Democratic Socialism and later the Die Linke and lectured at political events on his time and situation during the Second World War.