Bernd Zimmer was born in Planegg near Munich on 6 November 1948. After an apprenticeship as a trader in a publishing company and after working as a graphic designer in different publishing houses he studied philosophy and theology at the Freie Universität Berlin from 1973 until 1979. In 1975 he interrupted his studies to spend several months in Mexico and the South of the USA. Fascinated by the modern Mexican painting of the muralists around Diego Rivera, Zimmer began painting as an autodidact after his return. Already during this early period the main characteristics of his artistic creativity were founded: the fondness for large picture formats, the use of mainly pure basic colours, which were applied to the painting base without preparatory drawing. In 1977 he founded the 'Galerie am Moritzplatz' together with Middendorf, Fetting and Salomé, an artist-support group, in which he presented at his first exhibition 'FLUT' a series of water landscapes in November the very same year. Again and again Zimmer took on landscapes and handled the impressions of his numerous trips in large format series. After finishing his studies he was awarded a scholarship of the Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff-Foundation, which made it possible for him to live as a freelance artist. In 1980 he took part in an exhibition called 'Heftige Malerei' with Fetting, Middendorf and Salomé at the Berliner Haus am Waldsee', followed by various group and one-man shows. In 1982 Zimmer received a scholarship of the Villa Massimo in Rome. After his return in 1984, Zimmer settled in Polling in Upper Bavaria. Beside a studio at the local former cloister, the artist rented a studio at first in Liguria and later in the Emilia Romagna, as well as a studio in Oberhausen near Polling. Since 1993 Zimmer publishes together with Roland Hagenberg the artist magazine 'PlantSÜDEN'. He is regarded as one of the most important contemporary artists in Germany.