Walter Popp, born in Nuremberg in 1948, initially completed a law degree in Erlangen and subsequently worked as a barrister in Mannheim until 1983. He then went to France: he worked as a barman in Paris and in 1984 moved to Provence where he became a literary and later a technical translator. In 1985, Popp co-authored Selbs Punishment with Bernhard Schlink. The book, which was to become the first part of the so-called Selb trilogy, was translated into many different languages and a screen adaptation of it was made.