Through teachers like the pianist Clara Schumann and composers Joachim Raff, Bernhard Sekles and Engelbert Humperdinck, the Hoch Conservatory attracted students from around the world, including the composers Hans Pfitzner, Edward MacDowell, Percy Grainger, Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch, and the conductors Otto Klemperer and Hans Rosbaud.

In April 1933, when the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the director Bernhard Sekles, Mátyás Seiber, head of the world's first jazz department, and twelve other members of the teaching staff who were Jewish or foreign, were removed from their positions.

In 1940 its name was the "Staatliche Hochschule für Musik – Dr Hoch's Konservatorium", but in 1942 the subtitle "Dr Hoch's Konservatorium" was dropped, leaving the full name as "Staatliche Hochschule für Musik".

After the war both were reopened, and they now work together in a three-tier system of the Hochschule, the Hoch Conservatory and the Music School.

Helmut Walcha, who had taught the organ at the Hoch Conservatory from 1933 to 1938, initiated the reopening of the Hochschule in 1947.

During this post-war period, teaching was still taking place in private homes and in the partly renovated conservatory building – which was still in ruins.