Angela Hampel was born in Räckelwitz (Saxony) in 1956. She studied at the Academy of Art in Dresden from 1977 to 1982. From 1984 she ran studios in Dresden and East Berlin. In 1989 she was a co-founder of the Dresdner Sezession 89. In 1990 she received the Marianne Werefkin Prize of the Association of Berlin Women Artists and in 1998 an exchange scholarship from the Ohio Arts Council in Cleveland (USA). Hampel lives and works in Dresden and Berlin.
Stephanus Heidacker was born in 1959 in Ostercappeln near Osnabrück (Lower Saxony). He studied at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig from 1979. Following his studies, he moved to West Berlin and has been a freelance painter there since that time. Heidacker lives and works in Berlin and Atlanta (USA).
Martin Heinig was born in 1958 in Husum (Schleswig-Holstein). He studied from 1979 to 1986 at the University of Arts, West Berlin, under Wolfgang Petrick and Georg Baselitz. He took part in Baselitz’s master class. Since 1986 he has worked as a freelance artist. The presentations of his large-format works, especially in Germany, Canada and China, were particularly significant. Heinig lives and works in Berlin.
Bernhard Dörries was born in Hanover in 1898. From 1917 to 1918 he studied architecture at the Technical University in Hanover, but then switched to painting. In 1919 he joined the Hannoversche Sezession. In 1937 he was awarded the Grand Prix at the Paris World Exhibition for a portrait of a girl. From 1938 to 1945 and from 1955 to 1967 he was a professor at the University of the Fine Arts, West Berlin. Dörries died in Bielefeld (North Rhine-Westphalia) in 1978.
Sighard Gille was born in Eilenburg (Saxony) in 1941. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig from 1965 to 1970 under Bernhard Heisig and Wolfgang Mattheuer. He was a master student in Heisig’s class at the Academy of Arts of the GDR, East Berlin, from 1973 to 1976. His main works include the monumental ceiling painting in the Neue Gewandhaus in Leipzig, created between 1980 and 1981. Since 1992 he has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. Gille lives and works in Leipzig.
Dieter Goltzsche was born in Dresden in 1934. From 1952 to 1957 he studied at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden. He was then a master student at the Academy of Arts, East Berlin. In 1978 he was awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. From 1980 to 1992 he was a lecturer in graphic arts at the Weissensee University of the Arts in Berlin, then a professor until his retirement in 2000. In 1998 he was awarded the Hannah Höch Prize of the State of Berlin. Goltzsche lives and works in Berlin.
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.