He enrolled as a piano student at the Cologne Conservatory in 1910, where he performed his first concert one year later, and at music academies in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.
After World War I he worked as a composer of musical performances at the Hamburg Kammerspiele theatre, at the Munich Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, as well as of several Kabarett and revue productions.
In 1925 he was employed as Kapellmeister at the Deutsches Theater München, and conducted theatre ensembles, first in Munich and then in Berlin, where he worked with Max Reinhardt.
In 1930 he met with Friedrich Hollaender, whom he assisted arranging the musical score of Josef von Sternberg's film The Blue Angel starring Marlene Dietrich.
[1] His compositions added to the intended development of a "German" light music genre as contrasted to the US big band style, though they contained a large deal of jazz and swing elements.