Heinz Piontek has confirmed his place as a leading German poet by the collections of verse he has published since the early 1950s. His three novels of contemporary life in Munich and the autobiography of his early years have made a significant contribution to modern narrative prose. He has also been a successful short-story writer since the 1950s. In addition, he has written radio plays, travel literature, and literary criticism and has edited anthologies of poetry.

Piontek was born in Kreuzburg, Upper Silesia (now Poland), on 15 November 1925 to Robert and Marie Piontek. His father, who had contracted a lung disease as a result of exposure to poison gas in World War I, died in 1928. Piontek's high school education was interrupted when he was drafted in 1943. After he was released from a prisoner-of-war camp in 1945, he passed his Abitur (school-leaving examination) as a mature student. He held a series...