Hans Stein was born in 1935 in Dessau (Saxony-Anhalt). He moved to West Berlin in 1957, where from 1957 to 1964 he studied at the University of the Fine Arts and was a master student of Ernst Schumacher. He was awarded the First Prize of the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft in 1964. From 1989 to 2000 he taught at the University of Arts in Berlin. In 2015 a solo exhibition was held in his honour at the Citadel in Spandau. Stein lives and works in Berlin.