Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Hans Magnus Enzensberger was born in 1929 in Bavaria and grew up in Nazi Nurenberg. His poetry's social and moral criticism of the post-war world owes much to Marxism, et insists on the freedoms which have often been denied by Communist governments: like Orwell he maintains that satire and criticism should not be party-political. As well as being Germany's most important poet, he is a provocative cultural essayist and one of Europe's leading political thinkers.

His collections of poetry include The Sinking of the Titanic, Selected Poems, Lighter Than Air, his essays on culture and politics appear in Raids and Reconstructions, Dreamers of the Absolute, Europe, Europe, Political Crumbs, Mediocrity and Delusion, Civil War.