Philipp Schöpke attended primary school, which he was forced to leave after repeating several grades. Becoming a farm laborer, he struggled to integrate socially and was called an “idiot” by his peers. His attempts to join the German army, which resulted in being declared unfit and discharged, led him to discover he suffered from manic-depressive psychosis. Permanently institutionalized in 1956 at Gugging Psychiatric Hospital, he began drawing and became a resident of the Haus der Künstler.
The human figures he represents, like X-rayed, have frail, vulnerable bodies and disproportionately large heads. Schöpke always signs his drawings and, in most cases, notes the name of the person depicted, or their sex and age.