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At the age of six, Ernst Krenek - born in 1900 in Vienna - already enjoyed his first music lessons and tried to compose his first pieces. At the age of 16, he began to study at the University of Music, but his studies were interrupted in 1918 when he was enlisted in the army. After a two-term interlude at the University of Vienna, where he studied philosophy, he followed his former teacher Franz Schreker to Berlin to finish his studies in composition. Krenek's first compositions of free atonality fall into this period. Between 1923 and 1925 he went on several journeys during which he got to know other renowned contemporaries such as Friedrich Gruber, Rainer Maria Rilke and Theodor W. Adorno. After working as an assistant for Paul Bekker in Germany and the international recognition of his opera "Johnny spielt auf", he returned to Vienna in 1928, where he married his second wife. He quickly got introduced into the Viennese circles of artists (Karl Kraus, Alban Berg, Willi Reich etc.) and, in addition to his compositions, became literarily active, e.g. for the music magazine "Dreiundzwanzig", which he co-founded. In 1933, he was assigned his first big commission (Vienna State Opera "Karl V.") and, at the same time, was black-listed by the Nazis in Germany. In 1934 the world premiere of his opera "Karl V." was cancelled for political reasons. In the following years, until 1938, Krenek undertook several journeys and worked for newspapers, as well as a freelance artist. After Austria's annexation by Hitler's Germany, Krenek immigrated to the USA, where he continued his concert and lecturing activities. In 1945 he became a US citizen, and from 1950 onwards he frequently travelled back to Europe. By the mid-1950s, the first festivals focusing on Krenek's music took place. After the Krenek Festival in Madison in 1954, several similar events followed. The first festival of this kind in Austria took place in 1974: the Steirische Herbst put a focus on Krenek's works. In 1978 the Ernst-Krenek-Archive was founded in San Diego, an event followed in 1980 with the foundation of the Ernst-Krenek-Archive in the Viennese Stadt- und Landesbibliothek in Austria. In 1984, his opera "Karl V." premiered at the Vienna State Opera. Since 1986 the City of Vienna rewards composers with an award named after Ernst Krenek. In 1991 Krenek died in Palm Springs. One year later, his body was transferred to a memorial grave at the Zentralfriedhof (central cemetery) in Vienna.