Papst was born in
Oberammergau, the son of an educator and head teacher of the same name, Eugen Papst (1855-1923), after whom the Eugen-Papst-Förderschule in
Germering was later named. He then attended the teacher training seminar in
Freising and studied at the
University of Music and Performing Arts Munich from 1907. In 1910 he worked at the theater in
Olsztyn and from 1911 in Bern as
musical director of the city theater. In 1922 he was called to Hamburg, where he conducted the
Hamburg Philharmonic together with
Karl Muck until it was disbanded by the
Nazis in 1934. Papst first went to Münster as General Music Director in the fall of 1934, but by 1935 he had already become director of the Cologne Men's Choral Society and shortly afterwards, with the support of his friend
Richard Strauss, also became municipal General Music Director of the
Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne as successor to
Hermann Abendroth. He also taught conducting at the Cologne Academy of Music. After the end of the war, there were disputes over his position as General Music Director because the City of Cologne appointed
Günter Wand in 1946 despite an ongoing contract with Papst. In his opinion, Papst became more and more "the musical leading figure of the eternalists". Pope accepted an offer to the
Hochschule für Musik Detmold, where he held
master classes in
conducting. For the 1950
Oberammergau Passion Play, he created an arrangement of the Passion music by
Rochus Dedler (1779-1822), which was played unchanged until 1990 and is still in use today with revisions and additions by the present musical director Markus Zwink. His other works include orchestral works, choruses and Lieder, which have only been partially published. Papst died in Bern on 2 January 1956, aged 69. == Honours ==