[1] Horst Salomon was born in Pillkallen, then a small market town in East Prussia still recovering from the destruction of the First World War.

"Soon we had bread and butter and shoes: the republic prospered, while the enemy - it was a 17 June - spat lies and stupidity out of their confused minds.

Das Hakenkreuz es grinste frech im Knopfloch der Putschisten.

He was able to attend evening classes at the Mining School which enabled him to gain promotion, becoming a foreman and supervisor.

[8][9] In 1958 he was sent to the „Johannes R. Becher“ Literature Institute (as it was then known) in Leipzig, where he was one of several of the country's more promising youthful writers to be mentored by Dr.Erna Barnick.

His volume "Getrommelt, geträumt und gepfiffen" won him the FDJ's de:Erich-Weinert-MedailleErich Weinert Medal in 1960.

The first of these won him the National Prize Class 3, and the second transferred to the Deutsches Theater in Berlin within a year, in a production by Benno Besson.