Joseph Johannes Clemens Ahrens (April 17, 1904 in Sommersell – December 21, 1997 in Berlin) was a German composer and organist.
Ahrens received early training in organ and choral music with Wilhelm Schnippering in Büren and Fritz Volbach in Munich.
He accepted a professorship in church music at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1945 and remained there until 1969, serving as deputy director and professor of keyboard instruments from 1954 to 1958.
[1] Ahrens was awarded the Berliner Kunstpreis in 1955, became a knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1956, and received a silver pontificate medal in Rome and fellowship to the Germany Academy in Rome at the Villa Massimo in 1968.
His compositions often combined elements of prior liturgical music styles (such as Gregorian chant) with modern techniques like dodecaphony.