Gerhard Branstner

Born in Blankenhain, Branstner attended primary schools from 1934 and began a three-year administrative apprenticeship in 1942.

[1] As the son of poor parents (his father was a porcelain worker), he was given the opportunity in the GDR from 1949 to 1951 to catch up on his A-levels at the Arbeiter-und-Bauern-Fakultät [de] in Jena.

[1] The volume Ich kam, sah und lachte, published in 1973, contains eight settings of Branstner poems.

[3] In April 2000, Branstner was expelled from the Party of Democratic Socialism because of his article Klartext, Herr Comrade Gysi!

[4][5][6] He lived his last years in Berlin, where, in addition to his work as an author, he mostly performed at theatre events and readings.