After he had signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of Wolf Biermann in 1976, he lost his SED membership, and moved to the West two years later.

He is regarded as a versatile German writer who wrote short stories, essays, autobiographical works, film scripts and novels.

[1] In 1976, he signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of his fellow writer, Wolf Biermann,[5] and subsequently lost his SED membership.

Besides lyric poetry, he also wrote short stories, essays, autobiographical works, aphorisms, satires, fairy tales, science fiction, radio plays, speeches, travel writing, film scripts, a novel, and a drama.

He was awarded the Heinrich Heine Prize of Düsseldorf in 1985, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012[8] and the Kunstpreis of Schleswig-Holstein in 2014.