Volker Braun

Volker Braun was born in Dresden in 1939. Before studying philosophy in Leipzig, he worked in a printing plant, as a construction worker at the Schwarze Pumpe industrial complex, and completed vocational training in open-cast mining at Burghammer. He subsequently became a dramaturg at the Berliner Ensemble. Braun was a member of several academies, including the Academy of Arts of the GDR from 1983 and the Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1993. In the winter semester of 1999–2000, he held the Brüder Grimm Professorship at the University of Kassel. From 2006 to 2010, he headed the Literature Section of the Academy of Arts. Among his awards is the Georg Büchner Prize, which he received in 2000.