Roland Ladwig was born in Wedel (Lower Saxony) in 1935. He studied art in Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich and Berlin from 1957 to 1961. He also attended the summer academy of Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg during this time. As a landscape painter, he was active mainly in Norway and Southern France. Ladwig lived and worked in Berlin, the Provence and Italy. He died in Berlin in 2014.

Heidi Vogel was born in Auerbach/Vogtland (Saxony) in 1951. After studying physics, she studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin from 1973 to 1976 and at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden from 1976 to 1978. She completed her diploma in free graphics with Gerhard Kettner. From 1983 to 1985 she was a master student with him at the Academy of Arts of the GDR. Vogel lives and works in Berlin.

Stephan Velten was born in Potsdam (Brandenburg) in 1954. He studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin from 1974 to 1979, among others with Werner Stötzer, and graduated with a diploma in painting and graphic arts. In 1990 he co-founded the Potsdamer Künstlerverein e.V. In 1994 he received a working scholarship from the Stiftung Kulturfonds. Stephan Velten lives and works in Potsdam.

Thomas Richter was born in Berlin (East) in 1955. He studied history and art education at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig from 1976 to 1978. He then attended the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin from 1978 to 1983 in the section for painting and graphics. In 1987 he was involved in the artistic design of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz underground station in Berlin (East). As a master student, he studied at the Academy of Arts of the GDR from 1989 to 1991. Thomas J. Richter lives and works in Berlin-Friedrichshagen.

Robert Rehfeldt was born in 1931 in Stargard in Pomerania (now Poland). After the war, the family moved to Berlin (East). He studied at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin from 1948 to 1953. Afterwards he worked as a graphic artist, press artist and photo journalist and from 1963 as a freelance artist in Berlin (East). From the 1970s he was active as a mail-art artist with international contacts and initiated the first mail-art exhibition in the GDR in 1975. Rehfeldt died in Berlin in 1993.

Dietrich Noßky was born in Gera (Thuringia) in 1937. From 1955 to 1960 he studied art education at the University of Greifswald and then worked as an art teacher. From 1965 to 1970 he attended the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin and studied with Arno Mohr, among others. He worked as a lecturer at the university from 1973 to 1988, then as a professor until 1999. Noßky lives and works in Berlin.

Olaf Nehmzow was born in Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) in 1949. From 1976 to 1981 he studied painting at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. He held a lectureship there between 1989 and 2003 and at the Babelsberg Film University in Potsdam in 1993. In 1999 and 2003, he received a guest professorship at the then John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco. In 2018, he was awarded the Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Prize. Nehmzow lives and works in Berlin.

Volker Via Lewandowsky was born in Dresden in 1963. From 1982 to 1987 he studied at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden. Between 1985 and 1989 he staged independent performances in the GDR with the avant-garde group Autoperforationsartisten. In 1989 he moved to West Berlin. In 1991, he received a scholarship from the Berlin Senate for a residency at what is now MoMA PS 1 in New York. From 2008 to 2009, he completed work scholarships in Canada, Australia, Beijing and at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, among other places. In 2011, he worked as a fellow at the Villa Massimo in Rome. Between 2009 and 2018, he was a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Berlin University of the Arts and the University of Art and Design Halle. Lewandowsky lives and works in Berlin.

Michael Kutzner was born in Berlin (East) in 1955. After an apprenticeship as a plasterer, he worked as a stone sculptor. From 1973 to 1977, he attended evening classes at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. He then studied fulltime at the university until 1983. In addition to numerous work scholarships, he received a scholarship to study abroad at the Villa Massimo in Rome in 1995. In 1996 he was also a scholarship holder at the Künstlerhaus Lukas in Ahrenshoop and in 2000 at the Villa Romana in Florence. Kutzner lives and works in Berlin.

Michael Hegewald was born in Berlin (East) in 1955. From 1978 to 1983 he studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. Since 1986 he has been a lecturer at the Weissensee University of the Arts, the BEST-Sabel-Berufsfachschule for Design, the Technical University of Berlin and the Berlin University of Applied Sciences, among others. In 1994 Hegewald founded the Kunsthaus e.V. in Berlin and has been on the board ever since. In 1995 he received a working scholarship from the Stiftung Kulturfonds. Hegewald lives and works in Berlin.