Siegfried Lenz was a renowned German writer known for his novels, short stories, essays, and radio and theatre dramas. He was born on March 17, 1926, in Lyck (Ełk), East Prussia, and passed away on October 7, 2014. He was awarded the prestigious Goethe Prize in 2000 on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth, and the International Nonino Prize in Italy in 2010.

Lenz was the son of a customs officer and was drafted into the navy in 1943 after his graduation exams. He defected to Denmark shortly before the end of World War II, becoming a prisoner of war. Alongside his career, he and his wife, Liselotte, exchanged over 100 letters with poet Paul Celan and his wife, Gisèle Lestrange, between 1952 and 1961, illustrating his deep engagement with contemporary literary figures.