Gerhard Altenbourg (1926–1989), born Gerhard Ströch, was a German draftsman, printmaker, and painter, and is regarded as one of the most important German artists of the postwar period. From 1948 to 1950, he studied at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig. In 1949, he adopted the artist's name "Altenbourg" in reference to his hometown of Altenburg.

Altenbourg's work is distinguished by a unique, poetic visual language that merges figuration and abstraction. His delicate drawings, etchings, and lithographs, as well as his sensitive watercolors and paintings, explore themes of nature, humanity, and metamorphosis. Inspired by Romanticism, Symbolism, and Classical Modernism, he developed a highly distinctive artistic style of profound emotional and spiritual depth.

Although Altenbourg lived and worked in the former East Germany (GDR), his art remained largely independent of official cultural policy. He gained international recognition through exhibitionsWest-Germany and the United States. Today, his works are held in major public and private collections and are regarded as outstanding examples of 20th-century German art.