Karl-Ludwig Lange was born in 1952 in West Berlin. He studied from 1978 to 1986 at the University of Arts, West Berlin, where he later taught. From 1989 to 1991 he held a scholarship from the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin. Lange died in Berlin in 2018.
Thomas Lange was born in 1957 in West Berlin. He completed a study of painting at the University of Arts, West Berlin, under Wolfgang Petrick and was a pupil in Herbert Kaufmann’s master class in 1982. Among the awards he garnered are the scholarship of the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff-Stiftung in 1983 and the Primo Premio Suzzara, Mantua, Italy in 2001. He taught at the University of Marburg in 1986 and at the University of Arts, Berlin, from 1988 to 1989. Lange lives and works in Berlin and Italy.
Wolfgang Leber was born in 1936 in Berlin. From 1957 to 1961 he lived in East Berlin and studied at the School of Art in Berlin-Charlottenburg in West Berlin and on to the University of the Fine Arts, West Berlin. The construction of the Berlin Wall, however, put an end to that opportunity. He worked as a graphic artist at the Volksbühne theatre (East Berlin) and was head of the Werkstudio Grafik. In 1981 he was awarded the Prize of the City of Berlin (East Berlin). He co-founded the Mai-Salon artists’ initiative in 1990 and taught at the Weissensee University of the Arts, the University of Applied Science in Berlin and at the University of Greifswald. Leber lives and works in Berlin.
Helge Leiberg was born in Dresden in 1954. After an apprenticeship in print image editing, he studied at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden from 1973 graduating in 1978. In 1979 he founded a painters’ band together with A. R. Penck and combined various media in his art, comprising new music, free jazz, dance and film. In 1984 he lost his GDR citizenship and moved to West Berlin. In the 1990s he created performances, collaborating at times with author Christa Wolf. In 2013 he was awarded the Brandenburg Art Prize and in 2023 the honorary prize of the prime minister of the State of Brandenburg for his life´s work. Leiberg lives and works in Berlin and the Oderbruch (Brandenburg).
Gregor-Torsten Kozik was born Gregor-Torsten Schade in Hildburghausen (Thuringia) in 1948. From 1967 until 1972 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. In 1974 he moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz) and with Thomas Ranft founded the artists’ duo Berghaeusler. Working with Carlfriedrich Claus and Michael Morgner the artists’ cooperative gallery Clara Mosch was opened. Kozik lives and works near Chemnitz (Saxony).
Bernd Koberling was born in 1938 in Berlin. He studied from 1958 to 1960 at the University of the Fine Arts (West Berlin). Alongside K. H. Hödicke he founded the artists’ group VISION in 1961 and co-founded the Grossgörschen 35 artists’ cooperative gallery in West Berlin in 1964. From 1981 to 1988 he held a professorship at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg, and from 1988 to 2007 at the University of Arts, Berlin. In 2006 he was awarded the Fred Thieler Prize for painting and was elected to the Academy of Arts, Berlin, in 2012. Koberling lives and works in Berlin and Iceland.
Konrad Knebel was born in 1932 in Leipzig. From 1951 to 1957 he studied painting at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin, where he was later a teacher. In 1980 he was awarded the National Prize of the GDR, in 1990 the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts (Berlin) and in 2009 the Hannah Höch Prize of the State of Berlin, which was linked to a retrospective of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin. Knebel lived and worked in Berlin. He died in 2025.
Horst Hussel was born in 1934 in Greifswald (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). He began his study of art in Wismar and continued it in 1953 at the Academy of Art in Dresden. From 1954 to 1958 he studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin, but was not allowed to graduate, so commenced studies of graphic art at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin, which were interrupted by the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He went on to work as a freelance graphic artist, illustrator, writer and publisher in East Berlin founding, in 1994 the publishing house Dronte-Presse. Hussel died in Berlin in 2017.
Born in Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia) in 1906, Peter Janssen studied from 1923 to 1926 at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf. Studies continued from 1926 at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, where he graduated in 1928. In 1935 exclusion from the Reich Chamber of Culture, prohibited him from work. With the war over, he worked once more as a freelance artist in Düsseldorf, was awarded the Cornelius Prize of the City of Düsseldorf in 1952 and became a member of the Neue Rheinische Sezession. From 1957 to 1971 he taught at the University of the Fine Arts, West Berlin. Janssen died in Berlin in 1979.
Max Kaminski was born in 1938 in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad, Russia). From 1959 to 1967 he studied at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin under Peter Janssen and was in Hann Trier’s master class. In 1968–69 he worked in Paris and in 1972 at the Villa Romana in Florence. In 1974 he was awarded the Böttcherstrasse Bremen Prize. He took part in documenta 6 in 1977 and garnered the Art Prize of the City of Darmstadt. From 1980 to 2006 he taught as professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. Kaminski died in Augsburg (Bavaria) in 2019.