Born in Obercrinitz, where he grew up listening to pirate radio and smuggling Beastie Boys tapes, Bretschneider studied fine art and worked as a graphic designer. In 1984, inspired by science fiction radio plays and films, he began experimenting with tape machines, synthesizers, and modified guitars.

Two years later, Bretschneider founded cassette label klangFarBe, and co-founded AG.Geige (German: work group violin), a successful East German underground band influenced by Dada, The Residents, and Soviet science fiction. In 1995, Bretschneider and fellow AG.Geige member Olaf Bender (a.k.a. Byetone) founded the Rastermusic record label, which then merged with Carsten Nicolai's noton – archiv für ton und nicht ton in 1999 to become Raster-Noton.

Since then, Bretschneider's work has been released on various labels, including 12k, Mille Plateaux, Fällt, and Bip Hop, and appeared on well-known compilations such as Mille Plateaux's Clicks & Cuts. However, it was his 2003 album Gold — Raster-Noton's most blatantly pop album to date — that brought Bretschneider international acclaim. Rhythm, released a few years later, in 2007, was a percussive-funk masterpiece that received great reviews and marked an upswing of interest in rhythmic minimal aesthetics generally and Raster-Noton in particular. 

In recent years, Bretschneider has continued releasing records, such as KIPPSCHWINGUNGEN, SUPER.TRIGGER, and most recently, LUNIK. Released on Shitkatapult, LUNIK was shaped by the sounds of New York, London Berlin, San Francisco, and Cologne, offering a particular, sparse take on psychedelia.