As a journalist, he wrote for Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and the magazines Die Zeit and Der Spiegel.

He then worked as an editor for the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, and later was a journalist for Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Der Spiegel and Die Zeit.

Together with Carola Stern and Gerd Ruge, Rexhausen founded the German chapter of Amnesty International in 1961.

[1] After 1968, Rexhausen worked as an author in Hamburg, writing novels, satires and lyric poetry.

[5] The literary scholar Benedikt Wolf has compiled a comprehensive bibliography of Rexhausen's works.