Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1941, Messer first trained as a goldsmith attending the arts and crafts school in Pforzheim and then attended the academy of visual art in Stuttgart, studying artistic casting at the same time. In the late 1960s, he was already drawing attention for his often strongly satirical sculptures. He has been working as a freelance sculptor since 1982 and in the past four decades has made a name for himself as a profound, humorous critic of his times.