Born in Halle (Saale), Serauky, a Lutheran, was the son of an insurance agent and a housewife.
After his Abitur in 1922 at the Latina (Schule) [de] of the Franckesche Stiftungen in Halle, he studied musicology as well as German language and literature, history and philosophy at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Leipzig.
In 1928 he received his doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Halle with the dissertation Die musikalische Nachahmungsästhetik im Zeitraum von 1700 bis 1850 (The Aesthetics of Musical Imitation from 1700 to 1850) under Arnold Schering and Max Schneider.
His Antrittsvorlesung [de] (Inaugural Lecture) as Privatdozent dealt with the "nature and tasks of the sociology of music".
While working on the third volume of Hallesche Musikgeschichte in 1941 he was called up for military service with the Landesschützen (Deutsches Reich) of the Wehrmacht, but was discharged as a disabled person the following year.
According to the musicologist Eckehard Pistrick, "his role during the Nazi era must be viewed in a very differentiated manner".