Andreas Weishaupt was born in 1957 in Düsseldorf. From 1978 he studied at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig under Hermann Albert and Alfred Winter-Rust. He moved to West Berlin in the 1980s. In this period he maintained contact with the artists of the Neue Wilde group. Weishaupt lives in Frankfurt am Main.
Jürgen Wenzel was born in 1950 in Annaberg in the Erzgebirge (Saxony). He served an apprenticeship at the State Porcelain Manufactory in Meissen from 1967 to 1971, where he worked until 1975. This was followed in 1980 by studies at the Academy of Art in Dresden. He established a studio house in Dresden-Blasewitz where he ran a cooperative print shop. The graphics studio moved in 1992 to Burgstädtel (Saxony), where Wenzel lived and worked from 1998. He died in 2023.
Max Uhlig was born in 1937 in Dresden. From 1955 to 1960 he studied graphic art at the Academy of Art in Dresden. Until 1963 he was a master student of Hans Theo Richter. He received the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR in 1987. He was professor at the Academy of Art in Dresden from 1995 to 2002. In 2003 he received the Art Prize of the State Capital Dresden, and the Art Prize of the Chemnitz Foundation in Honour of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in 2020. Uhlig lives and works in Dresden.
Werner Tübke was born in 1929 in Schönebeck on the Elbe (Saxony-Anhalt). From 1948 to 1949 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig, then at the University of Greifswald. He received awards including the Art Prize of the City of Leipzig, the National Prize of the GDR and the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. He was appointed professor at the Leipzig Academy in 1972 and was its rector from 1973 to 1976. After this he began work on the monumental circular painting about the Peasant Wars in the Panorama Museum at Bad Frankenhausen (Thuringia). Tübke died in Leipzig in 2004.
The Tübke Foundation was established in Leipzig in 2006.
Heinz Trökes was born in 1913 in Hamborn on the Rhine (North Rhine-Westphalia). From 1933 to 1936 he completed studies at the School of Applied Art in Krefeld. After the war he maintained contact to the Dutch COBRA group. He participated several times in documenta in Kassel and the Biennale in Venice. After a number of teaching appointments he became a professor at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin in 1965. The recipient of numerous prizes, in 1983 he was given a retrospective at the Nationalgalerie in West Berlin. Trökes died in Berlin in 1997.
Ursula Strozynski was born in 1954 in Dingelstädt near Eichsfeld (Thuringia). From 1972 to 1976 she studied architecture at the Technical University in Dresden and then worked as an architect in East Berlin. Since 1977 she has been a freelance painter and graphic artist, and took part in the Art Exhibition of the GDR in Dresden in 1982. Until 2012 she taught at the Marburg Summer Academy. Strozynski lives and works in Berlin.
Erika Stürmer-Alex was born in 1938 in Wriezen (Brandenburg). From 1958 to 1963 she studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. In 1982 she moved to Lietzen (Brandenburg). From 1992 to 1995 she gave courses and was later a teacher at the Music and Art School in Frankfurt an der Oder. She won the Prize of the State of Brandenburg in 1992 and in 1993 a stay at the Villa Massimo in Rome. In 2015 she was honoured with the Brandenburg Art Prize for her life’s work. Stürmer-Alex lives and works in Lietzen.
Rolf Szymanski was born in 1928 in Leipzig where, from 1945 to 1950, he studied at the School of Applied Art. In 1950 he moved to West Berlin and continued his study of sculpture until 1955 at the University of the Fine Arts. He received various scholar- ships, including those for the Villa Massimo in Rome, the Villa Romana in Florence and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In 1964 he took part in documenta III, in 1969 and 1990 in the Venice Biennale. From 1974 to 1996 he was director of the department for fine art at the Academy of Arts, West Berlin, and also professor at the University of Arts from 1986 to 1996. Szymanski died in Berlin in 2013.
Ruth Tesmar was born in 1951 in Potsdam (Brandenburg). From 1969 to 1973 she studied art education at the Humboldt University in East Berlin and gained a doctorate. She studied painting and graphic art at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin from 1983 to 1986 under Dieter Goltzsche. From 1993 to 2016 she was a professor and head of the Seminar for Artistic and Aesthetic Practice at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In the 1990s she designed stage sets. Tesmar lives and works in Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern).
Heinrich Tessmer was born in 1943 in Chemnitz-Rottluff (Saxony). From 1959 to 1962 he studied at the Academy of Art in Dresden and from 1964 to 1969 at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin where he taught from 1976 to 1984. From 1984 to 1990 he became professor and head of its painting department. In 1982 he received the Max Lingner Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR and in 1985 the Berlin Prize. Tessmer died in Berlin in 2012.