Sigfrid Gauch

He worked as a school teacher, teaching German, philosophy and ethics at the Integrierte Gesamtschule in Mainz.

He was awarded a doctorate from the University of Mainz in 1985 for a dissertation on "Overt and covert spellings in literary Jacobinism".

It was later published as Friedrich Joseph Emerich – ein deutscher Jakobiner.

He made his name with his book Vaterspuren (Traces of My Father) in 1979, an influential memoir that began what later became a genre of literature about children of Nazi parents attempting to come to terms with their family's past.

Die Quellen zum Roman Vaterspuren, a collection of primary source material related to the book.