Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller was born on July 21, 1929 in Gelsenkirchen, Westphalia, Prussia, Germany. He died on April 13, 2024 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
From 1983 to 1994 he was director of the musicological institute of the University of Cologne.
From 1975 to 1983 he was director of the musicological seminar of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster.
Was chairman of the Joseph Haydn Institute in Cologne and the Robert Schumann Research Centre in Düsseldorf as well as president of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung.
Studied musicology at the University of Cologne from 1950 to 1955.
From 1976 until his death he was a full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. His focus is on medieval music theory, and on the music history of the 19th and 20th centuries.