Did karlheinz stockhausen have a troubled childhood?

Answer 1

As with so many, Karlheinz Stockhausen's childhood was blighted by the Nazi party. His mother was "euthanised" by them and his father died as a soldier on the eastern front. As a teenager he had to serve as a stretcher-bearer in the battle for Cologne. He comforted the wounded and dying by playing the piano for them. He witnessed terrible scenes but at night he would go out into the battlefield and watch the explosions of the bombs and anti-aircraft fire. He said it was like the most extraordinary firework display. He never felt in danger because he believed he was protected from above.

There are all the elements here to understand him as a composer. The need to invent new worlds, the Horror of the militaristic which meant he never composed music with a beat or as he called it a 'tyrannical' rhythm, the trust in the higher - all religion, spirituality etc, the power of music to relieve suffering and direct his audience to a more exalted plain. It also made him self-reliant to an extreme and more conscious than most of the value of life and proximity of death.