His mother, Emma (née Dietrich), was a German Communist Party activist, and his father, Dagobert Biermann, worked on the Hamburg docks.

[1] In 1942, the Nazis decided to eliminate their Jewish political prisoners and Biermann's father was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was murdered on 22 February 1943.

Eisler used his influence with the East German cultural elite to promote the songwriter's career, but his death in 1962 deprived Biermann of his mentor and protector.

[9] After the Wende, documents available from Biermann's file at the Stasi Records Agency revealed that the reviewers were under the impression that he was a regular user of stimulants, leading to the rejection of his application.

Karsten Voigt, chairman of the West German Socialdemocratic Youth (Jusos) protested against the suppression of the freedom of opinion and information by the state security.

Biermann's exile provoked protests by leading East German intellectuals, including actor Armin Mueller-Stahl and novelist Christa Wolf.

In West Germany, his manager was the musician Diether Dehm, who was secretly a Stasi informer reporting on Biermann's activities to the GDR authorities.

[13] In the Arab–Israeli conflict he supports Israel and is critical of the fact, as he sees it, that, under the influence of antisemitic views, a majority of Germans lack both understanding and empathy for the Israeli side.