The painter and draftsman Werner Heldt was born in Berlin in 1904. >From 1923 to 1924 Heldt attended the Berlin school of applied arts, and began studying at the Berlin academy that same year. After he had finished his studies in 1930, Heldt went to Paris and subsequently, from 1933 to 1935, on to Mallorca. Having returned to Berlin, Heldt worked in his studio from 1936 to 1940, when he was drafted into the military and was held in captivity until 1946. From there, Werner Heldt returned to Berlin, which he found completely destroyed. He then dealt with this issue in his art. In 1950 Heldt received the art prize of the city of Berlin. In his expressive artwork he captured the destroyed city of Berlin, caught in the clutches of the war, fear and destruction. Werner Heldt died in Sant'Angelo on the island of Ischia in 1954.