ERNST MEISTER (1911-1979) was born in Hagen, Westphalia, and lived there until his death. He studied theology, philosophy and German, serving as a soldier in the war, mainly in Italy. He devilled in his father's factirt before becoming a freelance writer in 1960. His first collection appeared as early as 1932. He published no poetry during the Third Reich and re-emerged in 1953, producing more than a dozen books of poems as well as radio plays and abstract expressionist paintings. He was awarded the George-Buchner-Preis posthumously in 1979.