Rainer Brambach was born in 1917 to a Swiss mother and a German father. He grew up in Basel and left school at the age of 14 to become a manual labourer. As a German national refusing to leave Switzerland, he spent much of the Secod World War in prison and in labour camps, an experience which proved to be of great influence on his writing. After the war, Brambach began to make his name as a poet. Recognition and awards notwithstanding, however, Brambach remained an outsider in the literary world and lived for many years in poverty. He died in 1983, shortly before the publication of his poetry collection Auch im April.