Peter Schneider is a German author. He was born in Lübeck and grew up in Grainau and Freiburg together with his five siblings. His father, Horst Schneider, was a conductor and a composer; his mother, Annelise, was born Rademacher. Peter Schneider read German, history and philosophy at Freiburg and Munich. In 1962, he moved to West Berlin to attend the Freie Universität there. In 1965, he joined the West German Socialist party, SPD, and he wrote speeches for Willy Brandt and other SPD politicians. In 1967, he became active in the student movement as a speaker and administrator. He participated in the preparations for the Springer Tribunal and was a member of a group of activists that wanted to form a proletarian party with the aim of radicalizing the working class. To prepare himself, Schneider took a job on the shop floor of a Bosch factory.