In 1944 he was drafted into the German wehrmacht and was for a while active in a illegal Werwolf group. After the war he settled in East Germany where he joined the Socialist Unity Partei (SED). He was expelled from the SED in 1957. In 1981 he settled in West-Germany.
He also wrote under the pseudonyms Hans Walldorf, Bernd Diksen, and Waldemar Naß.