Background
Max von der Grün was born in Bayreuth and grew up in Mitterteich.
Max von der Grün was born in Bayreuth and grew up in Mitterteich.
After a clerical apprenticeship, he became a paratrooper during World World War II in 1944. He was captured by United States. forces near Quimper (France) and became a prisoner of war, spending three years in prison camps in Scotland, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico. After his release, he worked as a bricklayer, and from 1951 to 1963 in the Zeche Königsborn mine near Unna.
He started writing in 1955, initially poetry, later focusing on worker-class themes. von der Grün died in Dortmund.
He was a founding member of the Dortmunder Gruppe 61, and a member of the International Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association.