1926
Michael Mathias Prechtl born on 26 April in Amberg/Upper Palatinate.

1944
Labour service in Poland. Soldier on the eastern front.

1945-49
Prisoner-of-war in Russia. Suffers from dysentery, scurvy, dystrophy.

1950
Works as a steelworker, casting pipes. Takes up study of art at the academy in Nuremberg.

1956
Marries the painter Frydl Zuleeg. Starts work as a freelance artist.

1958
Birth of a daughter, Pamela.

1959
City of Nuremberg Prize for the Promotion of Culture.

1964
Prechtl becomes deputy chairman of the Albrecht Dürer Society.

1969
Works with Godehard Schramm on the Nürnberger Bilderbuch (Nuremberg Picture Book).

1970
Trip to Belgium and Holland with a German television (ZDF) team.

1971
Nürnberger Bilderbuch receives the prize for "most beautiful book" from the Stiftung Buchkunst (Book Art Foundation). First portrait commission for the New York Times.

1972
Annual prize of the Art Directors Club of New York.

1973
Joseph E. Drexel Prize

1974
City of Nuremberg Culture Prize

1977
Resigns his honorary work as deputy chairman, business director and exhibition manager for the Albrecht Dürer Society.

1978
Honoured by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

1983
East Bavarian Culture Prize. His poster Lolas Floß (Lola's Raft) for the exhibition Die Isar - ein Lebenslauf (The River Isar - a Life) in Munich City Museum meets with protest.

1986
Large exhibition in Munich City Museum. The exhibition poster Himmelfahrt einer Wasserleiche (The Ascension of a Drowned Corpse) is criticised by monarchist associations.

1987
Nuremberg city council gives Prechtl "a commission of trust" to design wall paintings for the historical assembly room in the town hall.

1989
Public presentation of the designs. Prechtl withdraws them after they meet with massive criticism.

1990
Begins work on the illustrations to Benvenuto Cellini's Vita, which will take three years to complete.

1994
Receives the medal Pro Merite from the Bavarian Ministry for Science and Art.

1998
Wolfram von Eschenbach Prize of the Government District of Central Franconia.

1999
Friedrich Baur Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.

Kai Artinger