Rita Preuss was born in 1924 in West Berlin. From 1946 to 1952 she studied painting at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin and was a master student of Max Pechstein. Up to 1990 she participated in numerous art-for-architecture projects. In 2000 she was awarded the Hannah Höch Prize of the State of Berlin for her life’s work. In 2004 a retrospective was held at the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, in the Nikolaikirche. In 2011 she was elected chairperson of the Society of Berlin Women Artists. Preuss died in Berlin in 2016.