The sculptures of the great European sculptor Wieland Förster are among the icons of 20th-century sculpture. His works continue the tradition of sculpture since August Rodin, who elevated the fragment to an art form. They creatively incorporate influences from sculptors of classical modernism such as Brancusi, Arp, and Moore. Wieland Förster depicts pain, suffering, and martyrdom on the one hand, and beauty, sensuality, and eros on the other — the metaphors of barbarism and humanity.
| 1930 | born in Dresden |
| 1944-1946 | apprenticeship as a Technical Draftsperson in Dresden |
| 1946-1950 | sentenced by the secret service of the USSR Inner Ministry (NKDW) for alleged possession of weapons to 7.5 years of forced labor (special stockade in Bautzen) |
| 1950-1953 | working as a Technical Draftsperson |
| 1953-1958 | Study of sculpture at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HfBK) Dresden under Walter Arnold, Gerd Jäger and Hans Stegerd |
| 1959-1961 | master student at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin (East) under Fritz Cremer, since then freelance work |
| 1960 | first lithographs |
| 1961 | early termination of the master student period in the course of the ″formalism debate″ |
| 1962 | first etchings and sculptures for public spaces |
| 1966 | Will-Lammert-Preis of the Akademie der Künste (AdK) Berlin (East) |
| 1967 | short stay in Tunisia |
| 1968-1973 | exhibition, purchase and publication bans by GDR state authorities |
| 1974 | elected member of the Akademie der Künste (AdK) Berlin (East) at the suggestion of Konrad Wolf |
| Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis of the AdK Berlin (East) | |
| 1976 | Nationalpreis der DDR für Kunst und Literatur III. Class |
| 1977 | Kleist-Kunstpreis of the City of Frankfurt (Oder) |
| 1978-1990 | 5th Vice President of the AdK Berlin (East), responsible for the training of master students |
| 1983 | Nationalpreis der DDR für Kunst und Literatur II. Class |
| 1985 | promotion to the status as a professor |
| 1991 | since then member of the PEN-Center Germany |
| withdrawal from the AdK Berlin (East) in protest against the lack of a public and truthful reappraisal of its history | |
| 1992 | establishment of the Wieland Förster Archiv at the AdK Berlin (East) |
| 1996 | founding member of the Sächsische Akademie der Künste (SAK) Dresden |
| Art Prize of the City of Dresden | |
| 1999 | Art Prize of Brandenburg |
| 2000 | Bundesverdienstkreuz I. Class of the Federal Republic of Germany |
| 2001 | contract on behalf of the Wieland-Förster-Stiftung at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) with the donation of 58 sculptures |
| 2007 | termination of artistic work, abandonment of the studio |
| since then active as an author in Oranienburg | |
| 2009 | honorary award of Brandenburg for his life's work |
| 2010 | honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Potsdam |
| 2012 | Verdienstorden of Brandenburg |
| 2020 | Kulturpreis of the district of Oberhavel for his life´s work |
