Amersdorffer was a son of Alexander Amersdorffer (1875–1946), the successor to art historian Ludwig Justi as director of the Prussian Academy of Arts.
[1] During the Second World War he worked as a war artist on behalf of the Wehrmacht, covering the western campaign and the invasion of France, including the depiction of undamaged French cathedrals amidst the ruins of bombed cities,[1] which was used to propagate the claim that German forces gave "magnanimous protection to architectural cultural heritage".
[2] His cycles of war art made his name within the Third Reich, especially a painting of Rouen Cathedral, exhibited in 1941.
[1] In January 1942 Amersdorffer said in the magazine Art for All: "It has been granted to me to be able to work on this great task on behalf of the armed forces".
[3] In the postwar period Amersdorffer was appointed to a teaching position at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, and later became an honorary professor.