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Born on 7th February 1935 in Dresden |
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| 1949 – 1952 | Trains as a graphic designer and commercial artist in Dresden | |
| 1958 - 1961 | Studies at the Johannes R. Becher Literary Institute in Leipzig | |
| 1961 | Arts Prize of the town of Halle | |
| 1961 - 1965 | Editor at the Mitteldeutscher Verlag publishing house in Halle | |
| 1970 | Wins Berlin’s Goethe Prize | |
| 1971 - 1973 | Dramaturge in the town of Magdeburg | |
| 1977 | Heinrich Heine Prize. Travels to Paris to Claire Goll | |
| 1978 | Leaves the SED party in connection with the expatriation of Wolf Biermann | |
| 1984 | Heinrich Mann Prize | |
| 1990/1991 | Writer in Residence in Bergen-Enkheim | |
| 1992 | Co-founder and vice-president of the Free Academy of the Arts in Leipzig | |
| 1993 | Gives seminars on Klopstock at the University of Turin | |
| 1996 | Receives Hans Erich Nossack Prize from the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft (Culture group of German Businesses) and a honorary gift from the Federal President | |
| 1998 | Writer in Residence in Dresden | |
| 2001 | Brothers Grimm Prize | |
| Lives in Frankfurt |
