Alfred Leithäuser turned to painting after training as an engineer and studied under Gustav Wiethüchter at the art school in his native town of Barmen. In 1923 he went to Munich, where he continued his artistic education at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. Later, a two-year study under André Lhote in Paris, as well as extended stays in Italy, Spain and Mallorca followed.

Back in Munich Leithäuser became Member of the New Secession in 1930. During National Socialism, his work was considered degenerate. So his first solo exhibition took place in 1946 at Gut Hinterhör in the market congregation Neubeuern. Around 1960, Leithäuser joined the Munich based artist group Neuer Realismus, founded amongst others by Emil Scheibe and Albert Heinzinger.

In 1978 he received the Eduard-von-der-Heydt Culture Prize of the city of Wuppertal. Leithäusers work, still life, figure paintings and landscapes were initially influenced by Cézanne and Lhote, whose cubist design vocabulary he took up moderately. During the 1930s, Leithäuser turned to the New Objectivity. (fea)