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.
Hans-Hendrik Grimmling was born in 1947 in Zwenkau near Leipzig. From 1966 he worked as an assistant stage designer at the Volksbühne Berlin (East Berlin). In 1969 he began studying at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden, and from 1970 to 1974 he continued this at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig under Werner Tübke and Wolfgang Mattheuer. In 1984 he was one of the initiators of the 1st Leipzig Autumn Salon. In 1986 he moved to West Berlin. From 2006 to 2017 he was a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Europe. Grimmling lives and works in Berlin.
Reinhardt Grimm was born in 1958 in East Berlin. From 1982 to 1988 he studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. From 1991 onwards he worked on kinetic sculpture and spatial objects and in 1991participated in the Erik Satie project at the Volksbühne Berlin theatre, among other projects. In the same year he received a working scholarship from the Stiftung Kulturfonds, followed in 1997 by a scholarship from the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg. Grimm lives and works in Berlin.
René Graetz was born in Berlin in 1908. He grew up in Geneva and completed an apprenticeship as an intaglio printer from 1923. In 1929 he won the competition for best printer of the London newspaper The Times, whereupon he was commissioned to set up a print shop for The Cape Times in Cape Town. After living in South Africa and London, he moved to Berlin in 1946 and worked for the publishing house Volk und Wissen. In 1959 he received the National Prize of the GDR for his contribution to the Buchenwald Memorial, and in 1973 the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. Graetz died in 1974 and was buried in East Berlin.
Clemens Gröszer was born in East Berlin in 1951. From 1972 to 1976 he studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. From 1980 to 1983 he was a master student at the Academy of Arts of the GDR under Wieland Förster. Later he created material collages and experimented with Super 8 film and sound experiments. In 1981 he was a co-founder of the artists’ group NEON REAL. Gröszer died in Berlin in 2014.
In 2015 the Museum Dieselkraftwerk in Cottbus paid tribute to him with a retrospective.
Johannes Grützke was born in Berlin in 1937. From 1957 to 1964 he studied painting at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin. In 1973 he was a co-founder of the School of the New Magnificence. From 1989 to 1991, he created the monumental mural Procession of People’s Representatives in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main. From 1992 to 2002 he taught as a professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. In 2012 he received the Hannah Höch Prize of the State of Berlin and the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin honoured him with a retrospective. Grützke died in Berlin in 2017.
Hubertus Giebe was born in Dohna (Saxony) in 1953. From 1974 to 1976 he studied painting and graphics at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden, after which he was a masters student there under Bernhard Heisig and lectured from 1987 to 1991. In 1985 he won the main prize in the competition “100 Selected Graphics of the GDR” in Berlin. In 1997 he was awarded the Graphics Prize of Nordwestkunst in Wilhelmshaven and in 2007 the Wilhelm Morgner Prize for painting. In 2020 the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, awarded him the Falkenrot Prize. Giebe lives and works in Dresden.
Albrecht Gehse was born in Borsdorf near Leipzig in 1955. From 1976 to 1981 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. He also worked with the Leipzig artists’ group “37,2”. In 1984 he received the special prize in the exhibition Young Artists of the GDR – 1984. From 1987 to 1990 he was a master student at the Academy of Arts of the GDR under Bernhard Heisig. Since 1991 Gehse has lived and worked in Berlin.
Klaus Fussmann was born in Velbert near Düsseldorf in 1938. He studied at the University of the Fine Arts, West Berlin, from 1962 to 1966. In 1972 he received the Böttcherstrasse Bremen Prize and the Villa Romana Prize in Florence. From 1974 to 2005 he taught as a professor at the University of Arts, Berlin. A retrospective was shown at the Kunsthalle Bremen in 1992. In 2011 he was awarded the Order of Merit and in 2018 the Culture Prize of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. Fussmann lives and works in Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein.
Hartwig Ebersbach was born in 1940 in Zwickau (Saxony). From 1959 to 1964 he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig under Bernhard Heisig. From 1979 to 1983 he held a teaching position there for experimental art. In the 1980s he was a member of the Leipzig artists’ group “37,2”. In 1982 he was honoured with a retrospective at the Lindenau-Museum in Altenburg and in 1985 received the Art Prize of Düsseldorf Artists. In 1992 Ebersbach was a founding member of the Free Art Academy in Leipzig and in 1996 was appointed a member of the Saxony Academy of Arts in Dresden and the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He was awarded the Jerg Ratgeb Prize, Reutlingen, in 2006 and the Max Pechstein Prize of Honour of the City of Zwickau in 2017. Ebersbach lives and works in Leipzig.