From 1918 to 1922, Heinrich Burkhardt completed an apprenticeship as a lithographer and attended the drawing school of the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg. Between 1924 and 1931, he studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts under Otto Gussmann and Georg Lührig. Heinrich Burkhardt was a member of the Dresden Secession in 1932.

From 1945 onward, Heinrich Burkhardt lived in Altenburg again and became head of the drawing school of the Lindenau Museum. In 1947, he was appointed professor, after which he moved to Berlin in 1950. From 1950 to 1968, Burkhardt taught at the School of Applied Arts in Berlin-Schöneweide and later at the College of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee.

In 1961, he received a teaching position at ...