Volker Bartsch was born in Goslar (Lower Saxony) in 1953. In 1973 he began studying sculpture at the University of Arts, West Berlin. Since 1981 he has been a freelance artist in Berlin. In 1985 Bartsch was commissioned to create the Ammonitenbrunnen fountain on what is now Olof-Palme-Platz in Berlin. In addition to his sculptural work, he produces series of paintings. In 1988 Bartsch received the Kaiserring scholarship from the city of Goslar, and in 1990 the Prize of the Darmstädter Sezession. Since 1996 Bartsch has lived and worked in Michendorf near Potsdam (Brandenburg).