Georg Heck was born in Frankfurt am Main. Heck completed an apprenticeship as a metalsmith, and from 1914 to 1916 he was a factory worker at the Adlerwerke in Frankfurt. He was drafted in 1916, taken prisoner in France, and only allowed to return home again in 1920. In 1921, Heck began working again at the Adlerwerke, where he lost his right eye in a factory accident. In 1923–24, Heck registered at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt, where he attended the landscape classes given by Andreas Egersdörfer and studied portraiture and the graphic arts under Emil Gies. In 1925, he also studied under Johann Vincenz Cissarz at the School of Arts and Crafts in Frankfurt. In 1928, he joined the masterclass of Max Beckmann, of which he probably remained an official member until 1932.
From 1933 onwards, Heck endured considerable difficulties as an artist. His works were deemed by the Nazis to be “degenerate” and several were destroyed the Römerberg. In 1937, his works were removed from the City Gallery in Frankfurt am Main and confiscated. Heck was also compelled to work as a fireman and layer of asphalt. A bombing raid in 1944 destroyed a large number of his early works that had remained in his studio. In Italy in 1945, he was made a prisoner of war by the British. In 1953 he became a founding member of the Frankfurt Secession.
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