 On Auer's recommendation he was sent to study with Willy Heß at the Berlin Music Hochschule, and became in time director of the Hochschule Orchestra.Kulenkampff's health was fragile from early life, and towards the end of the First World War he returned to his home town to become concertmaster of the Bremen Philharmonic.He made rapid progress, especially as a soloist, and in 1923 became professor-in-ordinary at the Berlin Music Hochschule.