Hans Laabs was born in 1915 in Treptow an der Rega in Pomerania (today Trzebiatów, Poland). From 1937 to 1940 he studied at the School of Applied Art for Art and Graphics in Stettin. After the war he took courses in figure drawing at the University of the Fine Arts, West Berlin. He belonged to the Neue Gruppe Berlin, established in 1951, and was a co-founder of the surrealist artistic cabaret Die Badewanne (The Bathtub). Between 1953 and 1983 he lived and worked on Ibiza (Spain) and in West Berlin. He received many awards, including the Art Prize of the City of Berlin (West Berlin) in 1958 and the German Critics’ Award for his life’s work in 2003. In 1995 a retrospective was held in the Martin Gropius Building in Berlin. Laabs died in Berlin in 2004.