Biography
He grew up from 1939 in the industrial town of Bitterfeld, in the Halle / Saale district. After graduating from high school in 1956, he moved to Heidelberg. Since the GDR school-leaving certificate was not recognized in the Federal Republic of Germany, he repeated his Abitur in Heidelberg in 1957. From 1957 to 1962, Staeck studied law in Heidelberg, Hamburg and Berlin. On April 1, 1960 he became a member of the SPD. In the same year he showed the first exhibition of postcards, posters and leaflets in Heidelberg. In 1962 he passed his traineeship exam, followed by traineeship in Weinheim, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Pforzheim.
After organizing a student exchange between the universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig in 1963, the first visits from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution followed, as the Federal Republic of Germany verbally advocated contacts with the East, but pursued every practical activity in this area. Woodcuts were created from 1964 to 1967. In 1965 the producer publishing house "Edition Tangente" was founded, which later traded as "Edition Staeck". In 1967 he ran for the Heidelberg city council on the SPD list, as a member of the district executive committee of the Heidelberg SPD and the Young Socialists.
From 1967 to 1969 Klaus Staeck became an art tutor for the student high-rises on Klausenpfad. Meanwhile, his first collaborative works were created with Joseph Beuys. After his assessor exam in Stuttgart, he was admitted to the bar in Heidelberg and Mannheim in 1969. He also took part in the cultural festival "intermedia '69" with Jochen Götze in Heidelberg. In 1970 Klaus Staeck received the 1st Zille Prize for socially critical graphics in Berlin. He became a co-founder of the IKI "International Art and Information Fair" Düsseldorf / Cologne, which is now one of the most internationally renowned trade fairs as "Art Cologne".
In 1971, with Joseph Beuys among others, he took part in a call against the exclusivity of the Cologne art market. He also took part in "experimenta 4" in Frankfurt. In 1972 he created the "German Art Seal". For the federal election, Staeck produced around 1 million postcards and stickers as well as the poster "German workers! The SPD wants to take away your villas in Ticino". He was then involved in the first trials by the CDU. In 1973 he became chairman of the "Free University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research" association, founded with Joseph Beuys.
In the same year he received a teaching position at the University of Giessen in the art education department. On March 30, 1976, the "Bonn iconoclasm" occurred when angry members of the CDU/CSU, led by the future President of the Bundestag, Philipp Jenninger, tore down posters from Staeck at an exhibition in the Parliamentary Society in Bonn. The incident sparked great media interest. In the same year he received the "Intergrafik" sponsorship award in Berlin. In 1977 Klaus Staeck received the bronze medal from the IBA "International Book Art Exhibition Leipzig".
From 1978 to 1980 he showed the first comprehensive retrospective "Review of Art and Politics" in the Frankfurt and Heidelberg art associations, in the Berlin Congress Hall, in the Vienna Künstlerhaus, in the Haus der Jugend Graz, in the Aarhus town hall and in the Hanover art association. In 1979 he received the Critics' Prize in Berlin and the gold medal at the 4th Biennale for Photomontage in Grudziadz / Poland. He then founded the citizens' initiative "Action for More Democracy". Despite strong protests from the CSU, in 1980 Staeck showed exhibitions in the Goethe Institutes in Marseille, Paris, Tel Aviv, Brussels, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, Buenos Aires and Amsterdam.
In 1981 he began the campaign "We don't write for Springer newspapers" with Peter Rühmkorf, Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll and Walter Jens. He received first prize at the International Poster Biennale in Lahti / Finland. From 1981 to 1982 he was a visiting professor at the GHS University in Essen. As a member of the P.E.N. Center, he took part in "documenta 7" in 1982. In 1983 he became a member of the advisory board of the "Humanist Union". He also took part in the major event "Defend the Republic" in the Gruga Hall in Essen with Heinrich Böll and Dieter Hildebrandt, among others.
In 1986 he received the prize at the "3rd Triennale Européenne de l''Affiche politique" in Mons / Belgium and the Medal of Honor at the 11th International Graphics Biennale in Krakow / Poland. From 1986 he became a visiting professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. In 1987 he took part in "documenta 8". In 1988 he exhibited his works in Moscow. From 1989 to 1990, Staeck showed his second retrospective in Bonn, Munich, Saarbrücken and Bitterfeld. In 1990 he became a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1991 he showed an exhibition in Madrid. In 1992 he organized the 3rd Bitterfeld Conference, together with Eugen Blume and Christoph Tannert.
At "documenta 9" he showed an exhibition in a container on the Kassel Friedrichsplatz. In 1996 Klaus Staeck was awarded the "Gustav Heinemann Citizens' Prize". Together with Jack Lang in Berlin, he supported the "Get Out of the Traffic Jam" initiative in 1998; "euroVISIONS". In his works he took a harsher tone against the newly flared xenophobia in Germany and against the cuts in the education system. In 2003 he promoted an Internet campaign against the Iraq War entitled "Not in Our Name." In 2004 he became a member of the Cultural Senate of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
On April 29, 2006, Klaus Staeck was elected President of the Berlin Academy of the Arts, succeeding the resigned Swiss writer Adolf Muschg.
