Grünbein, Durs

The German poet and essayist Durs Grünbein was born in Dresden in the then DDR (East Germany). The city still clearly showed traces of the destruction during the Second World War, and the young Durs learnt to remember the city’s past beauty. His childhood was spent peacefully in the garden suburb of Hellerau. He started his first attempts at writing during his teenage years. He wrote his first poems while a student at the gymnasium.