Peter Ackermann was born in Jena (Thuringia) in 1934. Between 1956 and 1962, he studied at the University of Arts in West Berlin. After 1963, he initially worked as a freelance painter in Karlsruhe. In 1976/77, he held a professorship at the University of Arts in Berlin before taking up a professorship at the Academy in Karlsruhe in 1977. He received several awards for his artistic work: in 1965 he received the German Critics’ Prize and in 1971 the Villa Romana Prize. In 1977 he was represented at documenta 6 in Kassel. He died in 2007.