Paul Geissler, painter, printmaker, and illustrator, was born on 25 June 1881 in Erfurt, Germany. He studied drawing with the painter Hermann Sondermann and attended the Arts and Crafts School in Erfurt for four years. In 1903, Geissler was enrolled at the Grand-Ducal School of Arts in Weimar, Germany, where he studied with Max Thedy.

Geissler eventually gave up painting and specialized in etching. In 1910, he was in Paris working on large etchings before moving in 1912 to Munich, Germany where he served on the board of the Verein für Original-Radierung (Association for Original Etchings). He traveled to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Holland, Austria, France, before moving to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1918.

The decade of the 1920s witnessed his greatest productivity. Geissler traveled to the United States in 1928, returning home via Sicily and the Italian mainland. His travels resulted in etchings depicting the historic architecture of the major cities he visited.

Many websites note that Paul Geissler was appointed professor in Germany in 1943 but no mention of what institution appointed him has come to light. He did serve as Chairman of the Werdenfelser Kunstlerbund, association of artists in the Garmisch, Germany area.

Within the United States, the works of Paul Geissler are represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York; the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia; and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California.

Paul Geissler died in Gamisch, Germany on 30 May 1965.