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.
Gerd Sonntag was born in 1954 in Weimar (Thuringia). In 1973 he began studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig but abandoned the course. He moved to East Berlin. From 1980 to 1982 he had a scholarship at the Academy of Arts of the GDR and was a master student of Theo Balden. A solo exhibition was held at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York in 1989. Since 1998 Sonntag has worked intensively with glass. He lives and works in Berlin.
Hans Stein was born in 1935 in Dessau (Saxony-Anhalt). He moved to West Berlin in 1957, where from 1957 to 1964 he studied at the University of the Fine Arts and was a master student of Ernst Schumacher. He was awarded the First Prize of the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft in 1964. From 1989 to 2000 he taught at the University of Arts in Berlin. In 2015 a solo exhibition was held in his honour at the Citadel in Spandau. Stein lives and works in Berlin.
Willi Sitte was born in 1921 in Kratzau (today Chrastava, Czech Republic). After studying painting in Kronenburg in the Eifel region, from 1951 he taught at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Arts in Halle (Saale), where from 1959 onwards he was a professor. In 1974 he was elected president of the Association of Visual Artists, was a representative in the Volkskammer (parliament) of the GDR from 1976 and was a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party from 1986 to 1989. He received numerous National Prizes of the GDR. In 2003 he founded the Willi Sitte Foundation for Realist Art, based in Merseburg. Sitte died in 2013 in Halle/Saale (Saxony-Anhalt).
A retrospective was shown in 2021 in the Moritzburg art museum in Halle (Saale).
Hans-Martin Sewcz was born in 1955 in Halle/Saale (Saxony-Anhalt). From 1975 to 1981 he studied design and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. After this he worked as a freelance photographer in East Berlin. In 1988 he moved to West Berlin, and in 1991 gained a photography scholarship from the senator for cultural affairs in Berlin. From the 1990s his work also comprised video installations and art for architecture. Sewcz lives and works in Berlin.
Reiner Schwarz was born in 1940 in Hirschberg in the Riesengebirge (today Jelenia Góra, Poland). In 1950 he moved to Hanover. From 1960 to 1965 he studied at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin. In 1972 and 1976 he was awarded medals at the International Graphic Biennial in Frechen, and in 1996 the Prize of the First International Lithography Biennial of the Baltic countries in Nidzica (Poland). Schwarz lives and works in Berlin.
Bernard Schultze was born in 1915 in Schneidemühl (today Piła, Poland). He studied at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf from 1934 to 1939. He lived in Frankfurt am Main from 1947 to 1968, but regularly spent time in Paris. In 1952 he was a founder member of the Quadriga artists’ group. Among numerous honours, he received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Hesse Culture Prize and the Lovis Corinth Prize of the Guild of Artists. He took part in documenta in Kassel three times. Schultze died in 2005 in Cologne.
Stefan Schröter was born in 1954 in Wedel (Schleswig-Holstein). From 1973 to 1976 he studied at the University of Design, Hamburg, then from 1976 to 1981 at the University of Arts, West Berlin, where he was a master student of Klaus Fußmann. He received the support of a scholarship from the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin from 1982 to 1984. He has been awarded the Prize of the Darmstädter Sezession and the Atelier Prize of the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft. Schröter lives and works in Berlin.
Ludwig Gabriel Schrieber was born in 1907 in Waldniel (North Rhine-Westphalia). He studied painting at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf from 1924 to 1930. In 1925 he took part in his first exhibition with the Rheinische Sezession artists’ association and became a founding member of the Neue Rheinische Sezession in 1949. From 1951 he taught as a professor at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin, of which he became its director in 1968. In 1975 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Schrieber died in 1975 in Nesselwang in the Allgäu (Bavaria).
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.