The 86-year-old's biography reads like an exciting book: Walter Schnatz was born in 1930 in Attendorn, where he spent his childhood and youth. In 1950, he wrote a play about St. Kilian, which was performed in the bombed-out Franciscan church in Würzburg. In 1954, he went to the GDR in the hope of gaining his A-levels at the workers' and farmers' college, but this did not materialize. He worked as a carpenter and stoker and successfully took part in several literary competitions in the GDR, which led to him being able to study at the "Johannes R. Becher" Literature Institute in Leipzig. He passed his state examination in literature in 1973. Today, 86-year-old Walter Schnatz and his son live in Osnabrück.
