His setting of Lenin's Decree on Peace led to restrictions, and after he showed solidarity with the expatriated Wolf Biermann, he also had to move to the West, where he composed an opera Katharina Blum based on Heinrich Böll's novel, and worked in education.

[3] In 1957 he attended the 12th Darmstädter Ferienkurse in the western part of Germany[4] where he took classes with Alexander Jemnitz, Luigi Nono, Hermann Scherchen and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

He received his Abitur in 1959, and studied then at the Humboldt University of Berlin, musicology with Walther Vetter, Ernst Hermann Meyer and Georg Knepler.

[3] He also took courses in psychology with Kurt Gottschaldt [de], in art history with Karl-Heinz Clasen, in theology with Lieselotte Richter and in garden architecture with Willy Kurth.

[3] In 1968, his work was first restricted, because of his compositions Das Dekret über den Frieden after Lenin's Decree on Peace, and "Battaglia alla turca" (later No.

[9] Medek's works included chamber music and piano pieces, and settings of poetry by Bertolt Brecht which were performed by singers such as Sonja Kehler.