Peter Urban was born in 1941 in Berlin. As one of the best-known German translators and editors of Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Czech literature, he has received many awards, among others, an honorary doctorate from the University of Regensburg and the ›Commendation Award‹ at the ›Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding‹ in the year 2000. Peter Urban died on the 9th of December 2013 in Weidmoss, Germany.