In 1923 he became bandleader, and the following year embarked on a German tour that ended in April 1925 with an engagement at the Hotel Excelsior in Berlin.
This was followed by engagements at top Berlin dancehalls such as the Barberina, the Palais de Danse, and the Pavillon Mascotte.
Even the Nazi-sponsored Encyclopedia of Jews in Music describes Schachmeister as a "defining jazz bandleader of the "Systemzeit".
As a Jew and a jazz musician, he was considered doubly degenerate by the Nazi regime, and left Germany soon after Hitler's rise to power.
He first traveled to Belgium, but later settled permanently in Argentina, along with his fellow German-Jewish bandleaders Dajos Béla and Sam Baskini.