That's right, Bukfan. His big reputation doesn't come from his semi-German descent but from the hard efforts of Carls Weissner to make him popular here.
In the early 70s it was VERY hard for Weissner to place Buk's poetry. No publisher would have the guts.
Then Benno Kaesmayr from (very small) MaroVerlag did it - and almost got broke with it. (after about half a year he only had sold 100 copies of 'Gedichte, die einer schrieb, bevor er im 8. Stock aus dem Fenster sprang' = 'Poems written before jumping out of an 8th storey window'.) Then, at the Frankfurt book-fair he was lucky to find a fan of Buk who was connected to a lot of booksellers (his name is Armin Abmeier) and he got the thing started.
(Before that there was only the 'Notes' published here, I think.) Weissner went on and did excerpts of the 'Erections'. They made 4 books in Germany 3 of which were published by Maro again. And THEN the big business arrived: A publisher named 'Zweitausendeins' started to make Buk, and they made him BIG. There's a book, named 'Stories und Romane' (='Stories and Novels') containing 'Post Office', 'Factotum', 'Notes' AND 'South of No North' all in ONE Volume! (It was also 'Zweitausendeins' who invited Buk to his famous reading in Hamburg.)
So this was the start in the Mid 70s to make Buk the cult figure he was in Germany. I think, untill 'Barfly' came out he made far more money with book-sales in Germany than in the whole US.
Still most Germans read his prose rather than his poetry. Only after one gave it a try and discovered the poetry - he gets addicted. But most poetry here is still for sissies and housewives and that's why many good people don't even give it a try.
Carl Weissner is kind of a legendary figure here for Buk-fans. Though there were several other guys translating him too, everybody connects these two. Weissner has done him very good here. He was also one of his coffin bearers.