Max Drischner passed his Abitur at the grammar school in Züllichau. In 1910 he began studying theology in Leipzig and Breslau, but dropped out after seven semesters to study organ, piano and harpsichord at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Wanda Landowska was his formative teacher in the main subject.
From 1916 until the end of the First World War, he was a voluntary stretcher-bearer before Verdun. There he suffered an incurable injury to his left hand.
After the war he acquired extensive knowledge of Vorbachian music autodidactically, gave his first harpsichord concerts in Breslau (1920) and in Brieg (1923). He was instructed in organ playing and choral conducting by Paul Hielscher in Brieg. In 1923 he founded a youth choir there, which was later united with the choir of St. Nikolai in Brieg. In 1924 he was appointed cantor and organist of St. Nikolai in Brieg.
During his tenure in Brieg, he composed the majority of his organ and vocal works, led his choir to widely acclaimed successes, took part in choir and church music meetings, and had the Michael Engler organ restored in the spirit of the organ movement from 1926 to 1928. He travelled to Norway at least six times from 1927 to study Norwegian folk tones, which became fundamental to many of his compositions. His work in Brieg was recognised in 1942 with his appointment as church music director.
When Brieg was declared a fortress in January 1945, Drischner fled to Prieborn, and later on to Nesselgrund. In June 1946 he returned to Prieborn, took over organist duties in the Protestant church and in the Catholic church of the neighbouring village of Siebenhufen. In autumn 1946 he was driven out of Silesia with his mother and sister Margarethe. After brief stops in resettlement quarters in Magdeburg and Eimersleben, he was cantor and organist at the Augustinian Church in Erfurt for two months.
From 1947 to 1955, Max Drischner lived in Herrenberg (Württemberg). He was organist and cantor of the collegiate church there for a few months: after a five-month stay in the university clinic in Tübingen, he was confirmed in May 1948 that he could no longer perform his duties due to his illness.
In 1955, Drischner moved to Goslar, Brieg's sponsor town. There he was awarded the city's cultural prize in 1956. In the nearby church of the Grauhof monastery he took over organ tours, organ concerts and "organ celebration hours" at "Brieger Treffen"; here he also made numerous sound recordings for a record and for tape circulars to friends and relatives.
Albert Schweitzer played an important role in Max Drischner's life. He had already read Schweitzer's book on Johann Sebastian Bach when he was a schoolboy and wrote to him as early as 1910; Schweitzer replied immediately, thus beginning a lifelong correspondence. The two met four times in person. Drischner reported on the meetings in Friendship between the Primitive Doctor and a Silesian Cantor.
Drischner was buried in the cemetery in Lautenthal in the Harz Mountains.
