Rudolf Austen was born in 1931 in Germany and trained in applied and fine arts before establishing a long career as a painter and educator. Rudolf Austen studied at the School of Applied Arts in Wismar from 1950 to 1953 under Werner Laux and Heinz Dubois, and continued his studies at the Berlin-Weißensee Academy of Fine and Applied Arts from 1953 to 1958 under Gabriele Mucchi, Bert Heller, Arno Mohr, Kurt Robbel, and Oskar Nerlinger. This period provided Austen with a foundation in both applied-arts practice and the figurative, design-oriented traditions of East German art education.

From 1958 onward, Rudolf Austen lived and worked in Rostock as a freelance artist. Beginning in 1960, Austen also taught painting, design, and nature...