Rolf Faber was born in Münster (North Rhine-Westphalia) in 1908. From 1928 he studied German, philosophy and theatre studies in Münster and Munich, followed by painting studies at the art academies in Munich and Kassel and at the State University of Art in Berlin. He spent a year abroad at the Académie Julian, Paris. In the 1950s he was co-founder and chairman of the Neue Aachener Gruppe. In 1962 he moved to West Berlin. Faber died in Berlin in 2007.