History

The Hamburg University of Music and Drama grew out of the private acting school founded by Annemarie Marks-Rocke and Eduard Marks and was established in 1950 under the name “State University of Music.” Its first director was the German composer Philipp Jarnach. In its early years, the college was still housed in various locations throughout Hamburg and did not have its own building. After a program in Protestant church music was established in 1954, the college was able to move into the Budge Palace on the Outer Alster in 1956.

From 1903 onward, the Budge Palace served as the residence of the banker couple Henry (1840–1928) and Emma Budge (1852–1937), who had returned to Germany from America. After Emma Budge’s death, contrary to her testamentary wish to bequeath the palace to her Jewish relatives and under circumstances that remain unclear to this day, the Budge Palace was sold to the City of Hamburg for 305,000 Reichsmarks—far below its market value. From 1938 to 1945, the palace served as the residence of Hamburg’s Reich Governor and NSDAP Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann.

In 1967, the college was renamed the State College of Music and Drama to reflect the addition of degree programs in acting, theater, and opera singing.

In 1970, the Budge Palace was expanded with a new wing. The historic Hall of Mirrors, which until then had been used for students’ chamber music performances, was dismantled in 1980, moved to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, and faithfully reconstructed there in 1987, where it is still used for concerts today. In 1991, the college was renamed once again and has since been known as the College of Music and Drama. In 2003, the building was expanded to make room for the library.

With the Forum, the university has a fully functional theater with an orchestra pit and approx. 450 seats, where musical theater and drama productions are performed in addition to concerts. In 2004, Götz Friedrich and Jürgen Flimm's directing courses in musical theater and drama were affiliated with the university. All theater-related courses in directing, opera singing, acting and dramaturgy were combined under the umbrella of the university to form the so-called "Theaterakademie Hamburg".

Under the presidency of Prof. Elmar Lampson (2004-2022), the HfMT was one of the founding members of the Network of Universities of Music for Quality Management and Teaching Development. In August 2014, the HfMT was also successfully certified as a "family-friendly university". At the beginning of 2015, the HfMT concluded a partnership agreement with the conservatoires in Beijing and Shanghai as a sign of its solidarity with the Chinese conservatoires. At the heart of this agreement is a joint one-year "International Master's Degree" and a program for visiting students.

In 2017, the HfMT was the first university of the arts to successfully complete the system accreditation process and has since been able to set up and accredit its degree programs independently without having to have the usual program accreditations of individual degree programs carried out by external agencies. 

Between 2015 and 2017, the existing buildings on the Outer Alster were completely renovated and numerous additional rooms were added. In autumn 2021, a second campus opened on Wiesendamm in Barmbek for the Theaterakademie Hamburg and the Institute for Culture and Media Management after many years at locations scattered throughout the city. The most recent structural extensions are the JazzHall and the JazzLabs, which are housed underground in the university's park and between the two Trautwein buildings at the Milchstraße site. These buildings were made possible by the generous support of the Dr. E. A. Langner Foundation and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

Since 2023, the HfMT has been funded in a second phase as part of the federal-state initiative "Innovative University" with the project application "The ligeti center - laboratories for innovation and social development through the transfer of ideas". The joint project of the HfMT, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) is one of 29 projects funded by the federal and state governments. The ligeti center is located at Veritaskai in Harburg, so that the HfMT now has three locations. The university is currently working together with the University of Hamburg on the introduction of a "Teacher Training in Theater" course, which is due to start in the winter semester of 2024/25, based on a resolution passed by the city council in 2022.  

• Philipp Jarnach (1950 - 1959)
• Wilhelm Maler (1959 - 1969)
• Hajo Hinrichs (1969 - 1978)
• Hermann Rauhe (1978 - 2004)
• Elmar Lampson (2004 - 2022)
• Jan Philipp Sprick (since Oct. 2022)