21 Notable alumni of University of Fine Arts of Hamburg
Updated: May 30, 2026 EliteDegrees
University of Fine Arts of Hamburg is ranked #7,339 in the world and #207 in Germany by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 21 notable alumni from University of Fine Arts of Hamburg sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with University of Fine Arts of Hamburg won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Hans Breder
1935-2017 (aged 82)
painter
video artist
Hans Dieter Breder was a German-American interdisciplinary artist. He lived and worked in Iowa.
2. Angelika Platen
1942-. (aged 84)
photographer
Angelika Platen is a German photographer known internationally for her portraits of artists.
3. Nicolaus Schmidt
1953-. (aged 73)
historian
painter
photographer
Nicolaus Schmidt is a German artist, photographer and historian. He studied at the Hamburg Art Academy (HfBK) in the 1970s. In 1975, he founded ROSA, one of Germany’s first gay magazines. During the 1980s, he was a volunteer with the German branch of the children’s rights organization Terre des Hommes, serving for a time as its chairman. Since 1991, he...
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4. Kyung-hwa Choi-ahoi
1967-. (aged 59)
university teacher
draftsperson
writer
Kyung-hwa Choi-ahoi is a South Korean graphic artist, author and university teacher living in Germany, with a focus on drawing. From 2015 to 2019, she was a professor for drawing at the University of the Arts Bremen and has been a professor for drawing at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin since 2019. She lives in Hamburg and Berlin.
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5. Nana Rosenørn Holland Bastrup
1987-. (aged 39)
painter
Nana Rosenørn Holland Bastrup is a Danish artist. She lives and works in Copenhagen. She is a member of the artist duo Enfants Terribles and founder of Popdada.
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6. Astrid Proll
1947-. (aged 79)
journalist
photographer
Astrid Huberta Isolde Marie Luise Hildegard Proll is a German woman who was an early member of the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang). She is a photo editor and published a book.
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7. Hanne Darboven
1941-2009 (aged 68)
photographer
draftsperson
composer
visual artist
painter
Hanne Darboven was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers.
8. Yüksel Yavuz
1964-. (aged 62)
film director
screenwriter
Yüksel Yavuz is a Kurdish film director from Turkey.
9. Ute Meta Bauer
1958-. (aged 68)
university teacher
editor
exhibition curator
lecturer
artist
Ute Meta Bauer is a German curator based in Singapore. She is an international curator, professor of contemporary art and was the founding director of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Singapore.
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10. Wolfgang Lauenstein
1962-. (aged 64)
film director
Wolfgang Lauenstein is a German film director, writer and animator.
11. Cornelia Sollfrank
1960-. (aged 66)
computer artist
artist
Cornelia Sollfrank is a German digital artist, she was an early pioneer of Net Art and Cyberfeminism in the 1990s.
12. Wiebke Siem
1954-. (aged 72)
fashion designer
sculptor
professor
artist
Wiebke Siem is a German mixed media artist of German and Polish heritage, winner of the prestigious Goslarer Kaiserring in 2014 as "one of the most innovative and original artists who has never compromised in their art and whose sculptures have a tremendous aura and presence because they mix the familiar and the unfamiliar, the known and the unknown".
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13. Horst Janssen
1929-1995 (aged 66)
photographer
draftsperson
graphic artist
lithographer
painter
Horst Janssen was a German draftsman, printmaker, poster artist and illustrator. He had a prolific output of drawings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs and wood engravings.
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14. Otto Waalkes
1948-. (aged 78)
voice actor
showman
actor
comedian
screenwriter
Otto Gerhard Waalkes, or mononymously Otto, is a German comedian, actor, musician, writer, and comic book artist. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and films. His best known trademark are the 'Ottifanten' ('Ottiphants'), elephant-like comic characters of his own design. They featured on the cover of his first album release.
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15. Loriot
1923-2011 (aged 88)
cabaret performer
writer
costume designer
scenographer
comedian
Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow, known as Vicco von Bülow or Loriot ( German: [loˈʁi̯oː] ), was a German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer. As an artist, he was almost exclusively known under his pen name Loriot, which is the French term for the bird oriole depicted as a crest in the coat of arms of the Bülow...
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16. Fatih Akin
1973-. (aged 53)
screenwriter
film director
film producer
actor
film actor
Fatih Akin is a German and Turkish film director, screenwriter and producer. His films have won numerous awards and accolades, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film Head-On (2004), Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for his film The Edge of Heaven (2007), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film for...
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17. Rebecca Horn
1944-2024 (aged 80)
film director
teacher
video artist
installation artist
sculptor
Rebecca Horn was a German visual artist best known for her installation art, film directing and body modifications such as Einhorn (Unicorn), a body-suit with a very large horn projecting vertically from the headpiece. While living in Paris and Berlin, she worked in film, sculpture and performance, directing the films Der Eintänzer (1978), La ferdinanda: Sonate für eine Medici-Villa (1982)...
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18. Jonathan Meese
1970-. (aged 56)
artist
new media artist
painter
multimedia artist
sculptor
Jonathan Meese is a German painter, sculptor, performance artist, and installation artist based in Berlin and Hamburg. Meese's (often multi-media) works include paintings, collages, drawings and writing. He also designs theater sets and wrote and starred in a play, De Frau: Dr. Poundaddylein - Dr. Ezodysseusszeusuzur in 2007 at the Volksbühne Theater. He is mainly concerned with personalities of world...
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19. Isa Genzken
1948-. (aged 78)
collagist
installation artist
visual artist
sculptor
photographer
Isa Genzken is a German artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her primary media are sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including concrete, plaster, wood and textile. She also works with photography, video, film and collage.
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20. Daniel Richter
1962-. (aged 64)
draftsperson
architectural draftsperson
teacher
university teacher
painter
Daniel Richter is a German artist. He is based in Berlin, and was previously active in Hamburg. He is known for large-scale oil paintings.
21. Bernhard Cella
1963-. (aged 63)
exhibition curator
curator
artist
Bernhard Cella is an Austrian artist and curator.