Frans Wildenhain was born in 1905 in Leipzig, Germany. He began his training as a graphic designer and lithographer. In 1924 he became a student at the Bauhaus in Weimer. He studied painting under Gerhard Marcks, Josef Albers, Paul Kee and Moholy-Nagy. His pottery teacher was Max Krehan. After leaving the Bauhaus he contined his work in pottery at the State School of Fine and Applied Arts at Halle-Salle, where he obtained a master's degree in 1929. He had his own workshop in Holland until 1947 when he was able to follow his wife, Marguerite, to California where she had established Pond Farm - a craft school. In 1950 Frans accepted a position at the School for American Craftsmen (now School for American Crafts) at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. He continued teaching there until his retirement in 1970. During this time he was co-founder of Shop One with Tage Frid, Jack Prip and Ronald Pearson. He won many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958, as well as being made a Fellow of the American Craft Council.
Frans died in January, l980.