German printmaker Peter Paul was born in Strelitz, Germany, in 1943. He attended the University of Fine Arts, Berlin from 1965 to 1966, followed by enrollment at the Hamburg Institute for Fine Arts. There he studied under celebrated German Surrealist printmaker Paul Wunderlich, whose work would have a profound influence on the young artist throughout his career. Upon completion of studies, Paul worked as Wunderlich's assistant after graduation in 1969. He held his first exhibition of fine prints in 1971 in Berlin.

In 1974 he was awarded the coveted Rome Prize, an art scholarship offered by the American Academy in Rome. He remained in Italy for two years, at which point he worked and exhibited internationally. He participated in exhibitions in Basel, Tokyo, New York, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Paris, among other cities. His work is sometimes credited with reviving architecture as a worthy subject of artistic study, a la 18th and 19th century artists who recorded ancient structures in paint and printmaking mediums, utilizing the exacting nature of architectural drafting alongside the creative process.

Paul died in Hamburg in 2013.