Gerd Koenen was born 1944 in Marburg, Germany and studied history and politics in Tübingen and Frankfurt. During his studies in the 1960s he was involved in the radical left-wing student movement. He was a member of the German Socialist Student Union (SDS), and joined Maoist circles in the 1970s. He worked later as an editor, journalist, freelance writer and academic assistant of Lew Kopelew.
His most recent work is Vesper - Ensslin - Baader. Urszenen des deutschen Terrorismus (Vesper-Esslin-Baader: Primal Scenes of German Terrorism) (2003). Among his best known books are Die großen Gesänge - Lenin,Stalin, Mao Tsetung. Führerkulte und Heldenmythen (The Great Hymns - Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tsetung. Leader cults and hero myths) (1991); (with Lew Kopelew) Deutschland und die russische Revolution (Germany and the Russian Revolution) (1998); Utopie der Säuberung - was war der Kommunismus? (Utopia of Cleansing: What was Communism?) (1998) and Das rote Jahrzehnt. Unsere kleine deutsche Kulturrevolution 1967-1977 (The Red Decade: Our little German Cultural Revolution, 1967-1977) (2001).
