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.

Verena Hann was born in Pirna (Saxony) in 1955. She first did an apprenticeship in ceramics and then studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin from 1975 to 1980. Since then she has worked as a freelance ceramicist and sculptor. Hann has lived and worked in Wegendorf (Brandenburg) since 1992.

Frank Gottsmann was born in Kleinmachnow (Brandenburg) in 1956. From 1978 to 1982 he studied painting at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. Between 1985 and 2003 he held numerous teaching positions, including at the Potsdam College of Advertising and Design, the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and the Academy of Design in Crafts in Brandenburg/Havel. In 1990 he was a co-founder of the Potsdamer Künstlerverein e.V. and in 1991 he received a working scholarship from the Stiftung Kulturfonds. Gottsmann lives and works in Berlin and Neumeichow/Uckermark (Brandenburg).

Karol Broniatowski was born in 1945 in Łódź (Poland). From 1964 to 1970 he studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw as a master student of Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz. In 1972 he was invited to represent Poland at the 26th Venice Biennale. As a DAAD scholarship holder he moved to the current premises of the Kunsthaus Dahlem in 1976. This was followed by participation in the 1981 Biennale in São Paulo and the design of the fountain at Franz-Neumann-Platz in Berlin in 1984. In 1985 he was awarded second prize for the memorial design of the synagogue in Lewetzowstraße in Berlin. In 1991 he created one of his most important memorials to the deported Jews in Berlin at Grunewald station. Broniatowski lives and works in Berlin.

The German painter and graphic artist Christa Böhme was born Christa Krefft in Berlin in 1940. From 1958 to 1961 she studied graphic arts at the Master School for Arts and Crafts in Berlin-Charlottenburg. This was followed by studies in painting and graphic arts from 1961 to 1963 at the University of the Fine Arts, Berlin (West). In 1964 she moved to East Berlin and lived and worked freelance in Berlin-Pankow. A study trip took her to the Soviet Union in 1977. From 1977 to 1980 she was a master student of Wilhelm Schmied at the Academy of Arts of the GDR, and in 1980 she took up a teaching position at the Weissensee University of the Arts, Berlin (East). In 1991 Böhme chose to end her life.