Knappertsbusch was born in Elberfeld, today's Wuppertal. His parents did not want him to be a musician and sent him to study philosophy at Bonn University. However, he soon started to go to the Cologne Conservatory to study conducting with Fritz Steinbach. For a few summers, he was assistant to Siegfried Wagner and Hans Richter at Bayreuth. When Bruno Walter left Munich to go to New York, Knappertsbusch succeeded him as conductor of the Bavarian State Orchestra. He stayed in Munich until 1936 when the Nazis made it impossible for him to continue. He then went to Vienna. There he conducted the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic.