Josef Albers was born in Bottrop, Westphalia, Germany in 1888. From 1905-8 he studied to become a teacher in Büren, and went on to teach children in primary schools around Westphalia from 1908 and 1913. At this time, he taught “everything — reading, writing and arithmetic”.
During this period he realised that he wanted to specialise in teaching art, and enrolled in Berlin’s Königliche Kunstschule in 1913 with this in mind. He qualified as an art teacher in 1915.
Over the next few years whilst teaching art, Albers developed as a figurative artist and printmaker. He furthered his studies first part-time at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Essen where he studied lithography and then at The Royal Bavarian Art Academy in Munich, where he studied drawing with Franz Stuck and attended Max Doerner‘s course in painting techniques.