Heimrad Backer (1925-2003) was a poet, a photographer, and the editor of the journal neue texte and the Austrian avant-garde press Edition Neue Texte. As a teenager, he was active in the regional leadership of the Hitler Youth and joined the Nazi party when he turned eighteen. After the war, he studied philosophy and wrote his doctoral dissertation on Karl Jaspers. Beginning in the late 1960s, Backer attempted to come to terms with his wartime activity.
Patrick Greaney is assistant professor of German and comparative literature at the University of Colorado at Boulder.