Born in Berlin in 1905, Krupkat studied engineering before dropping out for lack of means to support himself.

Its publication in pre-war Germany was rejected due to the leftist ideas propounded by Krupkat.

Active in the Communist Resistance against the Third Reich, Krupkat fled to Czechoslovakia at the close of the Second World War.

He settled in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) after the Nazis' defeat, writing science fiction stories, screenplays, and novels, first fully devoting himself to a writer's career in the mid-1950s, following a decade of working as an editor.

Krupkat became chairman of the East German Writers Union's Science Fiction Working Group upon its formation in 1972.