Hans Hermann Biography
Hans Hermann Steffens was born in 1911 in Altona. He was a German painter and graphic designer.
After studying at the Altona Pedagogical Academy from 1930 to 1932, he devoted himself to the fine arts and studied at the Königsberg Art Academy, with Heinrich Wolff, Alfred Particelle and Alexander Kanoldt, between 1935 and 1938. In 1940 he enlisted in military service during the Second World War and participated in the Russian campaign, where he was taken prisoner. In 1948, Steffens received a teaching position at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Applied Arts (since 1990 Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle), but returned to Hamburg in 1949. From 1950 to 1957 he remained living in France. During a stay in Paris, he met the internationally renowned gallery owner Denise René, then the gallery owners Jean Louis Roque and Jacques Rouland, finally the painters Jean-Jacques Deyrolle, Jean Dewasne and Auguste Herbin and, in 1970, the painter Siegfried Klapper. Since 1958 he has lived in Provence, however from 1956 to 1959 he travels to Holland, in 1966 he stays in Spain, and in 1978 he goes to Venice.
As a full member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund, Hans Hermann Steffens took part in eleven major annual exhibitions of the DKB between 1953 and 1978. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg awarded him the Edwin Scharff Prize together with Volker Meier in 1973 and became a member of the Free Academy of Arts in Hamburg.
Steffens died in Gordes in 2004 at the age of 92.
