Michael Schoenholtz was born in 1937 in Duisburg. He studied sculpture at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin from 1957 to 1963 and was a master student of Ludwig Gabriel Schrieber. From 1971 to 2005 he taught as a professor at the University of Arts in Berlin and was director of the fine arts department of the Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1997 to 2003. He received an award from the International Sculptors’ Triennial in Poznań (Poland) in 2006. Schoenholtz died in 2019 in Berlin.
Cornelia Schleime was born in 1953 in East Berlin. From 1975 to 1980 she studied painting and graphic art at the Academy of Art in Dresden. She moved to West Berlin in 1984. In 1989 she was awarded a PS1 Scholarship of the DAAD for a one-year working stay in New York. In 2003 she received the Gabriele Münter Prize, the Fred Thieler Prize in 2004 and in 2016 the Hannah Höch Prize. In 2024 she received the Honorary Award from the Prime Minister of the State of Brandenburg (Brandenburgischer Kunstpreis) for her life’s work. Schleime lives and works in Berlin, in the Ruppiner Land (Brandenburg) and on La Palma (Spain).
Thomas Schindler was born in 1959 in Braunschweig (Lower Saxony). He studied painting from 1978 to 1983 there at the University of Fine Arts becoming a master student under Hermann Albert and Peter Voigt. After his studies he moved to West Berlin. Schindler lives and works in Halle/Saale (Saxony-Anhalt).
Hans Scheuerecker was born in Röhmhild, Thuringia, in 1951. Between 1967 and 1969, he completed an apprenticeship as an electrician in Eisenhüttenstadt. In 1971, he moved to Cottbus, where he completed a two-year internship in the painting department of the Cottbus State Theater. He was admitted to the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR in 1979. Since 1979, he has worked as an independent artist in various media. Between 1982 and 1986, he had a teaching position at the branch of the HfBK Dresden in Cottbus. He received the State of Brandenburg Art Prize in 1992 and 2011. In 1993 he worked on the Painter’s Pyramid project with Mathias Körner. In 1995, he had a work stay and scholarship in Rio de Janeiro. Hans Scheuerecker lives and works in Cottbus.
Wolfram Adalbert Scheffler was born in 1956 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz, Saxony). He cooperated with the Leipzig group of artists “37,2” and later applied to emigrate from the GDR. He settled in West Berlin in1986. From 1988 to 2007 he sojourned between Paris, Amsterdam, Biel and Berlin. He has been a teaching professor at the Academy of Art in Dresden since 2012. Scheffler lives and works in Berlin and Dresden.
Jochen Schamal was born in 1955 in East Berlin. From 1973 to 1976 he completed an apprenticeship as a potter and then worked in architectural ceramics. He applied to emigrate from the GDR and settled in West Berlin in 1988. From that time on his sculptures have been produced solely in bronze. One of which is located in front of the registry office in Berlin-Mitte. Schamal lived and worked in Gussow (Brandenburg). He died in 2024.
Volker Stelzmann was born in 1940 in Dresden and grew up in Leipzig. From 1963 to 1968 he completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig, where he worked as a teacher from 1973 onwards and as a professor from 1982 to 1986. He was invited to the Biennale in Venice in 1982 and 1984, and in 1983 received the National Prize of the GDR. In 1986 he applied to emigrate from the GDR and went to live in West Berlin, where he taught as professor of painting at the University of Arts from 1988 to 2006. Stelzmann lives and works in Berlin.
Walter Libuda was born in 1950 in Zechau-Leesen (Saxony). He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig from 1973 to 1979 and attended Bernhard Heisig’s master class. From 1979 to 1985 he worked as an assistant at the Academy, before moving to East Berlin. In 1990 he took part in the Venice Biennale. He received the Fred Thieler Prize for painting in 1999 and the Gerhard Altenbourg Prize in 2000. Libuda died in Berlin in 2021.
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.
Herta Müller was born in 1955 in Bottrop (North Rhine-Westphalia). From 1975 to 1981 she studied at the Folkwangschule in Essen. In 1993 she was honoured with the Swiss Boswil Scholarship. Since 1990 she has taught costume design as a guest professor at the University of Arts in Berlin. Müller lives and works in Berlin and Italy.