Reiner Kunze

Reiner Kunze (born 16 August 1933 in Oelsnitz, Erzgebirge, Saxony) is a German writer and GDR dissident.

In 1968, he left the GDR state party SED following the communist Warsaw Pact countries invasion of Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring.

In 1976, his most famous book The Lovely Years, which contained critical insights into the life, and the policies behind the Iron Curtain, was published in West Germany to great acclaim.

His writings consists mostly of poetry, though he wrote prose as well, including essays.

Kunze was a victim of the Stasi's Zersetzung psychological warfare program.