Kurt Mühlenhaupt was born in 1921 in Klein Ziescht (Brandenburg) and grew up in Berlin. In 1946 he began a course of study at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin, which he abandoned in 1948. In 1956 he moved from East to West Berlin, where he opened the legendary artists’ pub Leierkasten in 1961 where he sold his pictures. Later he was a member of the Malerpoeten (Painter Poets) group. In 1981 his Feuerwehrbrunnen (Firefighters’ Fountain) on Mariannenplatz in Kreuzberg, West Berlin, was inaugurated. In 1991 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin. From 1995 Mühlenhaupt lived in Brandenburg and died there in 2006.