[1] Erwin Elster completed his studies at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków between the years of 1907 to 1912; where he was taught by Wojciech Weiss, Julian Fałat, and Józef Pankiewicz.

After travelling back to Kraków in 1913, he began his career as an artist, while undertaking his life as a pedagogue, where he made his artwork and taught for the next sixty years.

The first members of "Świt" were: Fryderyk Pautsch, Adam Ballenstedt, Bronisław Bartel, Wiktor Gosieniecki, Stanisław Jagmin, Mieczysław Lubelski, Władysław Roguski, Stefan Sonnewend, and Jan Jerzy Wroniecki.

[5] After World War II, he co-founded the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (Związek Polskich Artystów Plastyków), he also continued his work as a pedagogue, where he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Technology in Łódź.

In 1967, for his eightieth birthday and sixty-fifth anniversary of him being an artist, he was given an award by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.