August Kiss was trained at the Ironworks in Paprotzan and the Royal Iron Foundry Gleiwitz. He further took lessons in chasing and drawing at the Academy under Leonhard Posch. From 1825 he worked as a student and later as assistant in the workshop of Daniel Rauch. In 1830 Kiss received a teaching position at the Königlichen Gewerbeinstitut in Berlin. He also repeatedly collaborated with his friend and colleague Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The marble version of the fighting Amazone sculpture, one of his masterpieces, is nowadays to be found in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Moreover Kiss designed the tombs of Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Christian Daniel Rauch.