Christian Thoelke was born in 1973 in East Berlin. From 1993 to 1999 he studied painting at the Weissensee University of the Arts in Berlin under Wolfgang Peuker. From 2001 to 2003 he was a master student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig under Ulrich Hachulla. He was awarded a scholarship of the Käthe Dorsch Foundation in 2005. Thoelke lives and works in Berlin.