Stuckenschmidt was born in
Strasbourg. At as early an age as 19, he was the Berlin-based music critic/correspondent for the
Prague-based periodical
Bohemia, and lived as a freelance music writer in
Hamburg,
Vienna,
Paris, Berlin and Prague, becoming personally acquainted with numerous composers of
avant-garde music. Amongst his most prominent musical productions were the "new music" concert cycle in Hamburg, and the 1927-8 concerts of the Berlin
November Group with
Max Butting. In 1929, Stuckenschmidt became the successor to Adolf Weissmans as the music critic at the
Berliner Zeitung am Mittag. In December 1934, he was forbidden by the fascist government to continue as a musical critic because of his positive review of
Alban Berg's opera
Lulu. Due to political pressure owing to the newly empowered
Nazi regime, he left the paper, later moving to Prague before the Nazi work ban went into effect and continued writing for foreign newspapers. In March 1939, the German forces
occupied Prague and seized Stuckenschmidt's passport, cutting off his opportunity for emigration. In 1941, he was given the choice between arrest and military service and became an English and French interpreter for the German army. He received numerous honours for his work, and was a member of the
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung,
Darmstadt. In Darmstadt he also taught at the
Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He died in
Berlin, aged 86. ==Books==