Coenraad Liebrecht Temminck-Groll was born in Amsterdam in 1925. He studied mathematics during the occupation of the Netherlands. When Temminck-Groll, like many other Dutch students, refused to sign a declaration of loyalty for the German occupying forces in May 1943, he was deported at the age of 18 to Reich territory and Berlin for forced labour.

In Berlin-Marienfelde Temminck-Groll had to work for the Maschinenfabrik Fritz Werner AG, a well-known armaments forge. In the spring of 1944 he planned to flee Berlin. He hid under a train carriage in the scheduled service from Berlin to Amsterdam and successfully reached his hometown, where he submerged until liberation.

After the war Coenraad Liebrecht Temminck-Groll studied architecture and became a successful architect, conservator and university professor at the University of Delft. He also worked in Germany as a specialist in the restoration of historic buildings, most recently in Potsdam.