Gustav König (12 August 1910 – 5 February 2005) was a German conductor and music director in Essen.
König was born at Schwabach in Bavaria in 1910 and educated at the local Gymnasium (Grammar school) and conservatory in his hometown.
His conducting career began in 1932–1933 as opera conductor and concert conductor in Osnabrück and then Szczecin (1934–1935), Berlin at the Neues Schauspielhaus and Theater des Westens (1936–1937 ), and Aachen (1941–1942) as Kapellmeister and Deputy General Music Director to Herbert von Karajan.
from the 1951/52 season he was appointed general music director, working with Karl Bauer, Erich Schumacher and Jürgen Dieter Waidelich.
[2][3][4] König was known for mounting original or German premieres of works of modernity, including Frank Martin's Le Vin herbé (1948), Alban Berg's Lulu (1953), Dallapiccola's Il prigioniero (1954) and Hermann Reutter's Die Brücke von San Luis Rey.