[1] Born in Wangen im Allgäu, Bader studied first church music in Rottenburg am Neckar, then at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, organ, piano, viola and composition, with Johann Nepomuk David.
He was the chief conductor of an orchestra at Oberhausen from 1970 to 1974, and served as director of the Folkwang Hochschule at Essen.
[2][3][4] Bader's artistic profile rose to new prominence in the 1980s when he served as chief guest conductor with the Krakow Philharmonic and choral director at Norddeutscher Rundfunk of Hamburg from 1983.
Bader made numerous recordings throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most notably, with the music of Kurt Weill, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Joseph Joachim and others, including mainstream and the lesser-known 18th and 19th century masses by Mozart, Bruch, Beethoven, Bruckner, Weber, as well as Nicolai, Suppé, and Donizetti.
145,[6] both with choir and orchestra of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, and in 1994 the First Symphony by Richard Wetz with the Cracow Philharmonic.