Braunbehrens studied history of literature, musicology, and art history in Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin; he received his PhD from the Free University of Berlin in 1974. He is Privatdozent (associate professor) since 1981. In 1976, he co-founded, and until 1981 co-edited, the journal ''Berliner Hefte – Zeitschrift für Kultur und Politik''; for many years, he was director of an art gallery in Berlin.
Braunbehrens is a former board member of the Humanist Union. He lives as a freelance author in Freiburg. His brother, , is a writer and philologist.