Elke Lixfeld was born in 1942 in Königsberg in East Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia). In the 1960s she lived in West Berlin. A master student in 19 at the University of Arts, West Berlin in 1979 she was a co-founder of the artists’ group and gallery “1/61”. In 1983 she held a year-long scholarship of the State of Berlin at MoMA PS1 in New York. She taught as a visiting teacher in 1988 at the University of Arts, West Berlin, and in 1998 at the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, Ulan Bator (Mongolia). Lixfeld lives and works in Berlin.