Horst Krause was born in 1934 near Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany (modern-day Kaliningrad, Russia). In the chaos at the end of World War II he was forced to flee with his parents to Bielefeld in western Germany, where he received his first music lessons.



Since his refugee parents were not financially well enough off, his dream of studying music was shattered. But by conscientious study on his own he learned enough to successfully compose varied folklike compositions for male choir.