Enzensberger was regarded as one of the literary founding figures of the Federal Republic of Germany and wrote more than 70 books,[1] with works translated into 40 languages.

"[2] In 1949, after completing his Abitur in Nördlingen,[5] Enzensberger studied literature and philosophy at the universities of Erlangen, Freiburg, and Hamburg, and at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving his doctorate in 1955 for a thesis about Clemens Brentano's poetry.

[13][14] His first literary publication was the poem collection verteidigung der wölfe (Defense of the Wolves) in 1957, followed by landessprache in 1960, both originally in all-lowercase.

[17] Between 1965 and 1975 he lived briefly in the United States (Fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies Wesleyan University)[b][19] and Cuba.

[20] He had the composer Hans Werner Henze invited to Cuba in 1969, and wrote the libretto for his El Cimarrón for baritone and three instrumentalists based on the memories of the escaped slave Esteban Montejo.

[21] From 1965, Enzensberger edited the magazine Kursbuch [de];[22] his writings influenced the 1968 West German student movement.

[11] He was editor of the prestigious book series Die Andere Bibliothek [de], published in Frankfurt, from 1985; it reached almost 250 titles.

[27] Enzensberger lived in Norway, Italy, Mexico, Cuba, the United States, West Berlin, and since 1979 in Munich[28][5] where he died on 24 November 2022, at age 93.

Though primarily a poet and essayist, he also ventured into theatre, film, opera, radio drama, reportage and translation.

[7] Enzensberger also invented and collaborated in the construction of a machine which automatically composes poems (Landsberger Poesieautomat [de]).

[40] Enzensberger translated Adam Zagajewski, Lars Gustafsson, Pablo Neruda, W. H. Auden and César Vallejo.

[45] Hans Haacke elaborates on the consciousness industry as it applies to the arts in a wider system of production, distribution, and consumption.