Career
He was born in Reinowitz, Bohemia. After his release he became a prolific translator of primarily Czechoslovakian but also Slovak works into German and was "rehabilitated" in 1990. He served in the Brandenburg State Parliament (as its Alterspräsident, or "chairman by seniority") in the newly unified Germany until he was forced to resign in 1992 following allegations of having participated in wartime atrocities on the Eastern Front during World World War World War II In 1998 he received the Johann-Heinrich-Voß-Preis für Übersetzung.