German musicologist and music critic.

A descendant of the violinst Louis Spohr, Schmitz studied first law, then musicology (Sandberger and Kroyer) and music theory (Beer-Walbrunn) at the University of Munich. He received his PhD in 1905, and in 1908 became music critic for the Münchner Allgemeine Zeitung and editor of the Neue musikalische Rundschau. After a period of study in Italy, he worked as a private teacher in Munich from 1909, was director of the Salzburg Mozarteum 1914–15, then settled in Dresden, where he was music editor for the Dresdner Nachrichten until 1939, teaching musicology at the Technische Hochschule from 1916. He was director of Musikbibliothek Peters in Leipzig from 1939 to 1955.

His writings include books on Hugo Wolf (1906), Richard Strauss (1907), Wagner (1909; 1937), Palestrina (1914), Orlando di Lasso (1915), Schubert (1954), also Harmonielehre als Theorie (1911), and studies of the cantata and sacred concerto (1914), and the piano and piano-playing (1919). He also edited two volumes of the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern.

There is no known correspondence between Schmitz and Schenker.

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