[1][3] From 1959 to 1964, Becker was a member of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and from 1964 to 1966, literary editor in the Rowohlt publishing house.

[1][6] Becker emerged as a poet in the 1960s, with a highly experimental kind of literature in open form, in opposition to conventional narrative.

[9] Since 1994, his contributions have appeared in the journal Sinn und Form, edited by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

[12] Since 1969, he was a member of the PEN Centre Germany and the Akademie der Künste, since 1974 also of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, since 1984 of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, and since 2009 of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.

Produced by Christoph Felder, the 80-minutes portrait featured him in interview and also short contributions by his colleagues Günter Grass, Uwe Johnson and Hans Magnus Enzensberger from Group 47.