Printmaker and graphic artist Carl-Heinz Kliemann was born in Berlin, Germany, on June 8, 1924. His formal art studies began in 1945 at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Max Kaus and then Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Upon graduation in 1950, he won an art prize from the city of Berlin for his graphic art. In 1958 he traveled to Italy on a Villa Romana Prize where he lived and worked in Florence. This would lead to further stays in Florence and would eventually culminate in his honorary membership at the Accademia Fiorentina delle Arti del Disegno. 

In 1966 he was appointed to the Architecture Department at the TH Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, where he taught graphic design. He also served as chair of Painting and Graphics for a time. In 1968 he received his first major design commission for a large sgraffito in the Reichstag, Berlin. He would go on to design an aluminum collage for the 1972 Olympic basketball hall in Munich and another for the Goethe Institute in Tokyo. In 1982, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by Berlin.

Kleimann exhibited throughout Europe and beyond, including a large traveling exhibition titled "Works and Documents" that showed throughout Germany. In 2004 a retrospective of his work was held on his 80th birthday at the Stiftung State Museum Berlin, and another in 2007 of his woodcuts. He died on April 12, 2016.