Otto Gleichmann was born in Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate) in 1887. Between 1906 and 1910 he studied art at the academies in Düsseldorf, Breslau and Weimar. In 1919 he moved to Hanover and became a member of the Hannoversche Sezession. In 1937 he was ostracised as part of the National Socialist Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) campaign. After 1950 he again participated in numerous exhibitions at the Kunstverein Hannover and in German galleries and museums. Gleichmann died in Hanover in 1963.