Burkhard Held was born in 1953 in West Berlin. From 1972 to 1978 he studied at the University of Arts, West Berlin. In 1979–80 he studied for one year in Garrucha (Spain) with a scholarship of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. From 1993 until his retirement, he was a professor at the University of Arts in Berlin. Held lives and works in Berlin.