Information about Heinz Hoyer

Heinz Hoyer is a German medalist and sculptor. He created the coin design for numerous coins of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany, and is considered to be one of the most successful coin designers in Germany.

Hoyer studied sculpture at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee from 1970 to 1975 . There he met the Bulgarian Sneschana Russewa , who had started studying graphic design at the East Berlin Art Academy and whom he married in 1976. In 1977 as a freelance sculptor moved to Bulgaria, where in 1980 he won a competition for a sculpture for the city of Balchik. Three years later he returned to the GDR, where he began his work as a coin designer. In the same year, Hoyer began teaching at the Kunsthochschule in Berlin-Weißensee.

It was not until 1983 that the artist couple began designing commemorative coins. Since 1984, Hoyer and his wife have lived and worked near Ernst Thälmann Park in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. Heinz Hoyer designed 13 commemorative coins for the GDR between 1983 and 1990, twelve of them together with Sneschana Russewa-Hoyer. Thus, both gained notoriety in specialist circles in the GDR as medallists. With German reunification, it had to be rebuilt because the artist couple was relatively unknown in the Federal Republic.

Hoyer's ideas and work were also immortalised on several commemorative coins in Germany after successful design competitions. This continuity in coin design continues to this day. Thus, three German currencies, the East German Mark, the German Mark and the Euro are the subject of his work. This explains why Heinz Hoyer, together with his wife Sneschana Russewa-Hoyer, is one of the most successful coin designers in Germany. Their mostly widely used design is the national side of the German one- and two Euro coins.