After an apprenticeship as a house painter, Franz Erich Lenk started an apprenticeship as a lithographer at the Art Institute Etzold & Kießling in Crimmitschau. In 1919, he began studying at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Professor Richard Müller, and in 1922, he became a master student of Ferdinand Dorsch in Dresden.

In 1928, he founded the artist group 'Die Sieben' along with Alexander Kanoldt and Franz Radziwill, whose works were characterized by an almost photo-realistic accuracy, clarity and order. At the beginning of 1930, he went to Berlin and became a professor at the Vereinigten Staatsschulen. In 1932, he finally moved into a studio in Berlin-Charlottenburg. In 1938, Lenk ...