Manfred Butzmann was born in Potsdam (Brandenburg) in 1942. From 1964 to 1969 he studied graphic design at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin under Arno Mohr, Werner Klemke and Klaus Wittkugel. From 1970 he worked as a graphic artist and book illustrator in Berlin-Pankow. He received the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts (Berlin) in 1991, the Order of Merit of the Federal Repub­lic of Germany in 1993 and the Ferdinand von Quast Medal (Berlin Monument Prize) in 1999. Since 2007 he has lived and worked in Potsdam-Bornim (Brandenburg). In 2020 Butzmann was an honorary recipient of the Brandenburg Art Prize.