German composer, song poet, conductor and organist. Ferdinand Möhring was born in Alt Ruppin, Germany as a son of the master carpenter Johann Friedrich Möhring and spent his childhood and youth in Neuruppin, where he attended high school. In 1830 he entered vocational school in Berlin, where he completed his master builder teachings on the expressed wishes of his father. He however quit and entered the Institute for Church Music. In 1835 his first motet was performed.
His striving for an all-round musical education caused him to enter the musical department of the Academy of the Arts where he studied from 1837 to 1840. Here he mainly composed instrumental music, including in 1838 his symphony in B flat major, which was premiered by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. On 26 January 1840 together with a fellow student he gave his final concert in the hall of Berliner Singakademie. [1] Following this he then moved to Saarbruecken, where he was appointed director/conductor of the mens' singing club and as the organists at Ludwigskirche.
Afterwards starting from 1842 he traveled to Paris where he made the acquaintance of Frédéric Chopin. In 1844 he was appointed Royal Director of Music which in 1845 led to the position of organist at the Pfarrkirche St. Marien and to music teacher at the Neuruppin Gymnasium.
From 1845 to 1874 as Director of Music he helmed the Mens' Choral Society of Altruppin, which since 1904 carries the name of its director of many years.
In 1857 he married Hedwig Schulz, the daughter of a painter and lived from 1873 as a freelance artist.
1876 he moved to Wiesbaden, where he became friends with the artists Gustav Freytag, Franz Abt and Friedrich von Bodenstedt. In 1887 Ferdinand Möhring died in Wiesbaden where his final resting place in the Northern Cemetery can be found.
