He was rector of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar and the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig as well as president of the Chopin-Gesellschaft [de] of the DDR.
In 1950, he began a scholar music at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar, which he completed in 1951 with the Staatsexamen.
From 1955 to 1966, he succeeded Willi Niggeling, who was "increasingly at odds with the cultural policy of the SED",[2] Rector of the Musikhochschule in Weimar.
From 1987 to 1990 he served as rector and thus successor to Peter Herrmann at the Academy of Music "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig.
From 1979 to 1991 he acted as general director of the "National Research and Memorial Centre Johann Sebastian Bach of the GDR".