Kurt Bauchwitz was born in Halle (Saale), Germany, on July 12, 1890, to Edmund and Ida (Sachs) Bauchwitz. Kurt exhibited a talent for writing at an early age and published his first serious writing piece at the age of fourteen. During his childhood, he also studied piano and gave his first concert at sixteen, however decided against pursuing a career in music as too time-consuming. After graduating from gymnasium in 1908, Bauchwitz attended the universities of Grenoble, Munich, Berlin and Halle, where he studied law, completing his studies in 1912. During his university years, he continued to write poems and aphorisms and published pieces in Der Jugend and Nord und Süd.

At the conclusion of his studies in 1912, Bauchwitz was appointed Referendar and served as a junior judge and barrister until 1921. During this period, Bauchwitz also served in the German army, having volunteered for service in October of 1913. He was called to active duty in 1914, served on the Western Front until the end of the war, and received both the Iron Cross and Medal of Honor for bravery. Also, during this period, he continued to write poetry, composing many of the poems later published in his first and only published volume of poetry, Der Lebendige (1920), while serving in the German army. Bauchwitz married Else Schwabach on February 22, 1917, who gave birth to their first son, Kurt Helmut, on April 22, 1919, and a second son, Till, on May 9, 1922. Bauchwitz was widowed in 1931 by the death of his wife Else on March 15.

From 1921 to 1938, Bauchwitz practiced law in Berlin, receiving his degrees of Pol.Sc.D. and LL.D. from the University of Halle in 1924. He specialized in international commercial law, family, and social law. In 1926 he received the appointment of Notar (notary), by the Minister of Justice. This appointment was revoked by Nazi legislation, effective November 1935, which deprived all "non-Aryan" Notare of their profession. In November 1938, his right to practice law was terminated for the same reason. As a result, Bauchwitz was forced to close his Berlin law firm office.

His termination in 1938, marked the beginning of a series of radical changes for Bauchwitz. Later that year, on December 16, Bauchwitz married his secretary Hilde Michaelis. Just prior to his departure from Hitler's Germany in March 1939, Bauchwitz is baptized as a Catholic. On April 3, 1939, Bauchwitz leaves Nazi Germany. After several months, Bauchwitz, his new wife and two sons arrive in Japan, where they remain for nearly eighteen months before their eventual departure for the United States on November 20, 1940. The period, which began with Bauchwitz' departure from Germany and ended with his eventual arrival in the U.S. in December of 1940, was one of his most fertile creative periods. During this time, he collected many of his earlier poems and epigrammatic verse to form the collection he called the "Abzieh-Bilderbuch". In addition, he wrote over 200 poems, later entitled his "Tokyo poems", which would also be the last significant collection of poetry in German he would write.

Following his arrival in New York City, Kurt Bauchwitz, German writer and lawyer, would become Roy C. Bates, on his way to becoming a naturalized American citizen and writer. In 1941, Bates' divorced, and from 1942-1943, Bates pursued a course of study at the Columbia University School of Library Science, receiving a B.S. degree in October 1943. Bates' diligent efforts at perfecting his English language skills result in securing him an editorial position on the Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Encyclopedia staff from 1944 to 1947. Bauchwitz also becomes an American citizen on May 6, 1946, legally changing his name from Kurt Bauchwitz to Roy Curt Bates at this time, and less than two years later, marries Barbara Bent, on March 16, 1948.

Although Bates continued to write during the late 1940s and early 1950s, composing poems, epigrams, short prose, and even song texts in English, only one of his efforts in English saw publication despite his continued attempts to find publication outlets for his writings.

The 1950s saw the resumption of Bates' legal career with his return to the study of law, first at St. John's University (1953-1954) and later at New York University (1954-1956), where he received his LL.B. degree in February 1956. On June 19, less than one month before his 67th birthday, Roy C. Bates became the oldest person at that time to be admitted to the Bar and practice in New York State. Several years later, in 1962, after relocating to Milton, Massachusetts, Bates was also admitted to the Massachusetts State Bar. Bates continued to write during the 1950s and 1960s, however, his writing took the form of semi-autobiographical observations, which he recorded on a regular, often a daily, basis. Three series of these collections of observations, the first series entitled "Pebbles" and the later two entitled "Quotation Marks", make up the bulk of his writing activity during this time. Bates also became interested in the legal aspects of psychedelic drugs during the 1960s, which resulted in his participation in the M.I.T.-based Neurobiological and Psychedelic Study Group, as well as publication of an article on "Psychedelics and the Law" in 1964.

Although Roy Curt Bates (Kurt Bauchwitz) was a lawyer by profession both in Germany and later in the United States specializing in international law, his enthusiasm for writing, which began in early childhood, survived the change from a German-speaking to an American writer, and is evidenced by the large body of written work he left behind. Bates died in Milton, Massachusetts on July 18, 1974, at the age of 84.