Fritz Winter was born in 1905 in Altenbögge near Unna (North Rhine-Westphalia). From 1927 to 1930 he studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In 1931 he became a teacher at the Education Academy in Halle/Saale (Saxony-Anhalt). In the 1950s he co-founded the Zen 49 artists’ group and took part in the first three documenta exhibitions in Kassel. From 1955 to 1970 he taught as a professor at the State Academy for Fine Arts in Kassel. In addition to numerous awards, he received the Grand Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1974. Winter died in Herrsching on the Ammersee (Bavaria) in 1976.