He made his debut in 1938 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with piano concertos by Beethoven and Brahms.
The high point of his career was during the Second World War, where he played under famous conductors and won the National Music Prize in 1940 as the best young pianist.
After the war, extensive concert tours took him all over Europe, where he played under famous conductors like Herbert von Karajan or Joseph Keilberth.
Furtwängler was so impressed by him that he asked him to perform the revised version of his Symphonic Concerto in B minor on a major concert tour with the Berliner Philharmonikern.
In 1955 he sat on the jury of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, as did his teacher Alfred Hoehn in 1932 and 1937.