Waldemar Grzimek was born in 1918 in East Prussia (today Poland). In 1924, the family moved to Berlin. He studied sculpture at the University of the Arts in Berlin from 1937 to 1941. In 1942 he received a scholarship for a residence at the Villa Massimo, Rome. After the war he was professor of sculpture at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin for three years. From 1957 to 1961 he held a professorship at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin and in 1959 was awarded the National Prize of the GDR for his contribution to the Buchenwald Memorial. In 1961 he moved to West Berlin. In 1964 he took part in documenta III and from 1968 to 1984 was professor of sculpture at the Technical University in Darmstadt. Grzimek died in West Berlin in 1984.