Around the turn of the century, the German school was still at the forefront, its two leading figures being Julius Klengel and Hugo Becker, both representatives of the Dresden school in a direct line from Grützmacher. Despite their shared inheritance of the need for serious interpretation and rejection of the over-Romantic virtuoso style, they were totally different in their concepts of teaching; Klengel's approach was empirical, whereas Becker concentrated more on scientific aspects.

Klengel was born in Leipzig into a family of professional musicians; his first lessons were with Emil Hegar, principal cellist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. From early childhood he played chamber music with his siblings, and at fifteen joined the Gewandhaus orchestra, succeeding his teacher as principal cellist at the age of twenty-two; the same year he was appointed ‘Royal Professor’ at the Leipzig Conservatoire. Klengel also appeared as a soloist in Germany and in Russia, where he gave the first performance in that country of Haydn's D major Concerto (1887); but he will go down in history for his remarkable teaching gifts. Paul Grümmer, Emanuel Feuermann, Guilhermina Suggia, Edmund Kurtz and William Pleeth are among his most famous pupils. Klengel never encouraged his students to copy, but always helped them to find their own way of playing; thus they were all individual in their approach. Klengel was also a composer who wrote imaginatively for the cello: his works include several concertos and a Hymn for Twelve Cellos, dedicated to the memory of the conductor Arthur Nikisch.