 He studied in his hometown, where he gave his début in 1936.During the war, he sang in Munich and at the opera of The Hague (then occupied by German troops).He sang at the Salzburg Festival from 1949 on (singing the role of Kreon in the premiere of Carl Orff's "Antigonae"), at the Bayreuth Festival from 1951 on and at the Metropolitan Opera from 1955 to 1964.