Benno von Archimboldi is the pen name of Hans Reiter, a German man born in 1920 who fought in World War II. His life can be divided into two broad eras, as signified by the name most associated with him during this time. In the first part of his life, he is Hans Reiter. Once he begins to write and comes to terms with the trauma of the world around him, he eases into the vagueness of the Archimboldi identity. While the critics attempt to understand anything at all about Archimboldi, they fail because they do not know anything about Hans Reiter. The trauma of Hans Reiter’s life is essential to understanding the character of Archimboldi. Hans is a tall man who never quite fits into the world around him. Physically, intellectually, and emotionally, he felt alienated from a rapidly changing Germany. Though he fought alongside the Nazis, he never had any real ideological commitment to the Nazi cause. One of his only sincere emotions is the fear that he killed Ansky, the Jewish Russian man whose papers become an obsession for Hans. When he is told a story by a man who executed hundreds of Jews, Hans quietly strangles him.