Heinz Zander was born in 1939 in Wolfen near Bitterfeld (Saxony-Anhalt). From 1959 to 1964 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig under Bernhard Heisig. From 1967 to 1970 he was a master student for graphic art of Fritz Cremer at the German Academy of Arts in East Berlin. He then returned to Leipzig, where he lived and worked until his death in 2024.