Study of art history in Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich, Vienna and Berlin. 1920 dissertation about Hans Baldung Grien. 1923/24 visit to the Konservatorium in Karlsruhe (violin, conducting). 1924/25 director of music at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. 1925 - 1927 deputy director of the Badische Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.

Subsequently script editor, director and deputy director of the Krolloper in Berlin. Through commission of the stage designers Oskar Schlemmer and László Moholy-Nagy as well as the directors Gustaf Gründgens and Jürgen Fehling he decisively co-shaped the avant-garde profile of this theatre in the years 1927 to 1931. In Berlin also friends with Arnold Bode. 1931 - 1933 guest director at the Städtische Oper in Berlin.

1933 emigration to Switzerland, until 1939 principal director at the Corso-Theater Zürich. 1942 - 1949 director of the Theater- und Tournéegenossenschaft Zürich and 1945 - 1948 director of the Stadttheater Chur. After 1948 freelance director in Berlin, Paris, Rome, Zurich as well as at the Salzburger Festispiele and the Venice Biennial. Work also as publicist, music and art critic and exhibition organizer. Intended for the advisory board of the first documenta.