Günter Grass
Encyclopedia
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize
-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.
He was born in the Free City of Danzig
(now Gdańsk
, Poland). In 1945, he came as a refugee
to West Germany, but in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood.
He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum
, a key text in European magic realism
and the first part of his Danzig Trilogy
. His works frequently have a left wing political dimension and Grass has been an active supporter of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
. In 2006, Grass admitted that he had been a member of the Waffen-SS.
on 16 October 1927, to Willy Grass (1899–1979), a Protestant ethnic German
, and Helene Grass (née Knoff, 1898–1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian
-Polish
origin. Grass was raised a Catholic. His parents had a grocery store
with an attached apartment in Danzig-Langfuhr (now Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz). He has one sister, who was born in 1930.
Grass attended the Danzig Gymnasium
Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine
"to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer
, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst
, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, volunteered into the Waffen-SS
. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American POW camp.
In 1946 and 1947 he worked in a mine
and received a stonemason's education. For many years he studied sculpture
and graphics
, first at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
, then at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also worked as an author and travelled frequently. He married in 1954 and since 1960 has lived in Berlin as well as part-time in Schleswig-Holstein
. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979. From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Berlin Academy of Arts)
.
(Die Blechtrommel), published in 1959 (and subsequently filmed
by director Volker Schlöndorff
in 1979). It was followed in 1961 by the novella
Cat and Mouse (Katz und Maus) and in 1963 by the novel Dog Years
(Hundejahre), which together with The Tin Drum form what is known as The Danzig Trilogy
. All three works deal with the rise of Nazism
and with the war experience
in the unique cultural setting of Danzig and the delta of the Vistula River. Dog Years, in many respects a sequel to The Tin Drum, portrays the area's mixed ethnicities and complex historical background in lyrical prose that is highly evocative.
Grass has received dozens of international awards and in 1999 achieved the highest literary honor: the Nobel Prize for Literature. His literature is commonly categorized as part of the artistic movement of Vergangenheitsbewältigung
, roughly translated as "coming to terms with the past."
In 2002 Grass returned to the forefront of world literature with Crabwalk
(Im Krebsgang). This novella, one of whose main characters first appeared in Cat and Mouse, was Grass' most successful work in decades.
Representatives of the City of Bremen joined together to establish the Günter Grass Foundation, with the aim of establishing a centralized collection of his numerous works, especially his many personal readings, videos and films. The Günter Grass House in Lübeck
houses exhibitions of his drawings and sculptures, an archive and a library.
As a trained graphic artist, he has also created the distinctive cover art for his novels.
He was elected in 1993 an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
) party and supported Willy Brandt
's election campaign. He criticised left-wing radicals and instead argued in favour of the "snail's pace", as he put it, of democratic reform (Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke). Books containing his speeches and essays have been released throughout his literary career.
In the 1980s, he became active in the peace movement
and visited Calcutta for six months. A diary with drawings was published as Zunge zeigen, an allusion to Kali
's tongue.
During the events leading up to the unification of Germany in 1989-90, Grass argued for continued separation of the two German states, asserting that a unified Germany would necessarily resume its role as belligerent nation-state.
In 2001, Grass proposed the creation of a German-Polish museum for art lost during the War. The Hague Convention of 1907 requires the return of art that had been evacuated, stolen or seized. Unlike many countries that have cooperated with Germany, some countries refuse to repatriate some of the looted art
.
. Before this interview, Grass was seen as someone who had been a typical member of the "Flakhelfer
generation," one of those too young to see much fighting or to be involved with the Nazi regime in any way beyond its youth organizations.
On 15 August 2006, the online edition of Der Spiegel
, Spiegel Online
, published three documents from U.S. forces dating from 1946, verifying Grass's Waffen-SS membership.
After an unsuccessful attempt to volunteer for the U-Boat
fleet at age 15, Grass was conscripted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst
(Reich Labor Service), and was then called up for the Waffen-SS in 1944. At that point of the war, youths could be conscripted into the Waffen-SS instead of the Armed Forces (Wehrmacht
); this was unrelated to membership of the SS proper
.
Grass was trained as a tank gunner and fought with the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
until its surrender to U.S. forces at Marienbad
. In 2007, Grass published an account of his wartime experience in The New Yorker
, including an attempt to "string together the circumstances that probably triggered and nourished my decision to enlist.". To the BBC
, Grass said in 2006:
Joachim Fest
, conservative German journalist
, historian and biographer of Adolf Hitler
, told the German weekly Der Spiegel about Grass's disclosure:
As Grass has for many decades been an outspoken left-leaning critic of Germany's treatment of its Nazi past, his statement caused a great stir in the press.
Rolf Hochhuth
said it was "disgusting" that this same "politically correct" Grass had publicly criticized Helmut Kohl
and Ronald Reagan
's visit to a military cemetery
at Bitburg
in 1985, because it also contained graves of Waffen-SS soldiers. In the same vein, the historian Michael Wolffsohn
has accused Grass of hypocrisy in not earlier disclosing his SS membership. Many have come to Grass' defense based upon the fact the involuntary Waffen-SS membership was very early in Grass' life, starting when he was drafted shortly after his seventeenth birthday, and also precisely because he has always been publicly critical of Germany's Nazi past, unlike many of his conservative critics. For example, novelist John Irving
has criticised those who would dismiss the achievements of a lifetime because of a mistake made as a teenager.
Grass's biographer Michael Jürgs spoke of "the end of a moral institution".
Lech Wałęsa
had initially criticized Grass for keeping silent about his SS membership for 60 years, but after a few days had publicly withdrawn his criticism after reading the letter of Grass to the mayor of Gdańsk
, and admitted that Grass "set the good example for the others."
On 14 August 2006, the ruling party of Poland, Law and Justice
, called on Grass to relinquish his honorary citizenship of Gdańsk
. A 'Law and Justice' politician Jacek Kurski
stated, "It is unacceptable for a city where the first blood was shed, where World War II began, to have a Waffen-SS member as an honorary citizen." However, according to a 2010 poll ordered by city's authorities, the vast majority of Gdańsk citizens did not support Kurski's position. The mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, said that he opposed submitting the affair to the municipal council because it was not for the council to judge history.
Collections in English translation
Interviews
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.
He was born in the Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
(now Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Poland). In 1945, he came as a refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
to West Germany, but in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood.
He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum
The Tin Drum
The Tin Drum is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. The novel is the first book of Grass's .- Plot summary :The story revolves around the life of Oskar Matzerath, as narrated by himself when confined in a mental hospital during the years 1952-1954...
, a key text in European magic realism
Magic realism
Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...
and the first part of his Danzig Trilogy
Danzig Trilogy
The Danzig Trilogy is a series of novels and novellas by German author Günter Grass about the interwar and wartime period in the Free City of Danzig .The three books in the trilogy are:...
. His works frequently have a left wing political dimension and Grass has been an active supporter of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
. In 2006, Grass admitted that he had been a member of the Waffen-SS.
Life
Grass was born in the Free City of DanzigFree City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
on 16 October 1927, to Willy Grass (1899–1979), a Protestant ethnic German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
, and Helene Grass (née Knoff, 1898–1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian
Kashubians
Kashubians/Kaszubians , also called Kashubs, Kashubes, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia ....
-Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
origin. Grass was raised a Catholic. His parents had a grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
with an attached apartment in Danzig-Langfuhr (now Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz). He has one sister, who was born in 1930.
Grass attended the Danzig Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
"to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer
Luftwaffenhelfer
Luftwaffenhelfer are terms commonly used for German students deployed as child soldiers during World War II....
, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst
Reichsarbeitsdienst
The Reichsarbeitsdienst was an institution established by Nazi Germany as an agency to reduce unemployment, similar to the relief programs in other countries. During the Second World War it was an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht.The RAD was formed during July 1934 as...
, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, volunteered into the Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg or 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS panzer division. The division was formed at the beginning of 1943 as a reserve for the expected Allied invasion of France. However, their first campaign was in the Ukraine in April 1944...
from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American POW camp.
In 1946 and 1947 he worked in a mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
and received a stonemason's education. For many years he studied sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
and graphics
Graphics
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
, first at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...
, then at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also worked as an author and travelled frequently. He married in 1954 and since 1960 has lived in Berlin as well as part-time in Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979. From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Berlin Academy of Arts)
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
.
Works
English-speaking readers probably know Grass best as the author of The Tin DrumThe Tin Drum
The Tin Drum is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. The novel is the first book of Grass's .- Plot summary :The story revolves around the life of Oskar Matzerath, as narrated by himself when confined in a mental hospital during the years 1952-1954...
(Die Blechtrommel), published in 1959 (and subsequently filmed
The Tin Drum (film)
The Tin Drum is a 1979 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Günter Grass. It was directed and co-written by Volker Schlöndorff...
by director Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff is a Berlin-based German filmmaker who has worked in Germany, France and the United States...
in 1979). It was followed in 1961 by the novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
Cat and Mouse (Katz und Maus) and in 1963 by the novel Dog Years
Dog Years (novel)
Dog Years, published in Germany in 1963 as Hundejahre, is a novel by Günter Grass. It is the third and last volume of his Danzig Trilogy, the other two being The Tin Drum and Cat and Mouse....
(Hundejahre), which together with The Tin Drum form what is known as The Danzig Trilogy
Danzig Trilogy
The Danzig Trilogy is a series of novels and novellas by German author Günter Grass about the interwar and wartime period in the Free City of Danzig .The three books in the trilogy are:...
. All three works deal with the rise of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and with the war experience
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the unique cultural setting of Danzig and the delta of the Vistula River. Dog Years, in many respects a sequel to The Tin Drum, portrays the area's mixed ethnicities and complex historical background in lyrical prose that is highly evocative.
Grass has received dozens of international awards and in 1999 achieved the highest literary honor: the Nobel Prize for Literature. His literature is commonly categorized as part of the artistic movement of Vergangenheitsbewältigung
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
Vergangenheitsbewältigung is a composite German word that describes processes of dealing with the past , which is perhaps best rendered in English as "struggle to come to terms with the past"...
, roughly translated as "coming to terms with the past."
In 2002 Grass returned to the forefront of world literature with Crabwalk
Crabwalk
Crabwalk, published in Germany in 2002 as Im Krebsgang, is a novel by Danzig-born German author Günter Grass. As in earlier works, Grass concerns himself with the effects of the past on the present; he interweaves various strands and combines fact and fiction...
(Im Krebsgang). This novella, one of whose main characters first appeared in Cat and Mouse, was Grass' most successful work in decades.
Representatives of the City of Bremen joined together to establish the Günter Grass Foundation, with the aim of establishing a centralized collection of his numerous works, especially his many personal readings, videos and films. The Günter Grass House in Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
houses exhibitions of his drawings and sculptures, an archive and a library.
As a trained graphic artist, he has also created the distinctive cover art for his novels.
He was elected in 1993 an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
Political activism
Grass took an active role in the Social-Democratic (SPDSocial Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
) party and supported Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
's election campaign. He criticised left-wing radicals and instead argued in favour of the "snail's pace", as he put it, of democratic reform (Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke). Books containing his speeches and essays have been released throughout his literary career.
In the 1980s, he became active in the peace movement
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
and visited Calcutta for six months. A diary with drawings was published as Zunge zeigen, an allusion to Kali
Kali
' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...
's tongue.
During the events leading up to the unification of Germany in 1989-90, Grass argued for continued separation of the two German states, asserting that a unified Germany would necessarily resume its role as belligerent nation-state.
In 2001, Grass proposed the creation of a German-Polish museum for art lost during the War. The Hague Convention of 1907 requires the return of art that had been evacuated, stolen or seized. Unlike many countries that have cooperated with Germany, some countries refuse to repatriate some of the looted art
Looted art
Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act, or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unethical pillage by the victor of a conflict."Looted art"...
.
2006 Waffen-SS revelations
On 12 August 2006, in an interview about his forthcoming book Peeling the Onion, Grass stated that he had been a member of the Waffen-SSWaffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
. Before this interview, Grass was seen as someone who had been a typical member of the "Flakhelfer
Luftwaffenhelfer
Luftwaffenhelfer are terms commonly used for German students deployed as child soldiers during World War II....
generation," one of those too young to see much fighting or to be involved with the Nazi regime in any way beyond its youth organizations.
On 15 August 2006, the online edition of Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
, Spiegel Online
Spiegel Online
Spiegel Online , the online version of German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, is one the most visited news websites written in the German language.- Company :...
, published three documents from U.S. forces dating from 1946, verifying Grass's Waffen-SS membership.
After an unsuccessful attempt to volunteer for the U-Boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
fleet at age 15, Grass was conscripted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst
Reichsarbeitsdienst
The Reichsarbeitsdienst was an institution established by Nazi Germany as an agency to reduce unemployment, similar to the relief programs in other countries. During the Second World War it was an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht.The RAD was formed during July 1934 as...
(Reich Labor Service), and was then called up for the Waffen-SS in 1944. At that point of the war, youths could be conscripted into the Waffen-SS instead of the Armed Forces (Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
); this was unrelated to membership of the SS proper
Allgemeine SS
The Allgemeine SS was the most numerous branch of the Schutzstaffel paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany. It was managed by the SS-Hauptamt...
.
Grass was trained as a tank gunner and fought with the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg or 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS panzer division. The division was formed at the beginning of 1943 as a reserve for the expected Allied invasion of France. However, their first campaign was in the Ukraine in April 1944...
until its surrender to U.S. forces at Marienbad
Mariánské Lázne
Mariánské Lázně is a spa town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. The town, surrounded by green mountains, is a mosaic of parks and noble houses...
. In 2007, Grass published an account of his wartime experience in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, including an attempt to "string together the circumstances that probably triggered and nourished my decision to enlist.". To the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Grass said in 2006:
Joachim Fest
Joachim Fest
Joachim Clemens Fest was a German historian, journalist, critic and editor, best known for his writings and public commentary on Nazi Germany, including an important biography of Adolf Hitler and books about Albert Speer and the German Resistance...
, conservative German journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, historian and biographer of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, told the German weekly Der Spiegel about Grass's disclosure:
As Grass has for many decades been an outspoken left-leaning critic of Germany's treatment of its Nazi past, his statement caused a great stir in the press.
Rolf Hochhuth
Rolf Hochhuth
Rolf Hochhuth is a German author and playwright. He is best known for his 1963 drama The Deputy and remains a controversial figure for his plays and other public comments, such as his insinuation of Pope Pius XII's sympathies for Hitler's extermination of the Jews in the 1963 play The Deputy and...
said it was "disgusting" that this same "politically correct" Grass had publicly criticized Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's visit to a military cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
at Bitburg
Bitburg
Bitburg It is situated approx. 25 km north-west of Trier, and 50 km north-east of Luxembourg . One American airbase, Spangdahlem Air Base, is located nearby.-History:...
in 1985, because it also contained graves of Waffen-SS soldiers. In the same vein, the historian Michael Wolffsohn
Michael Wolffsohn
Michael Wolffsohn is an Israeli-born German historian. Wolffsohn was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine and today is Israel. His parents were German Jews who fled in 1939....
has accused Grass of hypocrisy in not earlier disclosing his SS membership. Many have come to Grass' defense based upon the fact the involuntary Waffen-SS membership was very early in Grass' life, starting when he was drafted shortly after his seventeenth birthday, and also precisely because he has always been publicly critical of Germany's Nazi past, unlike many of his conservative critics. For example, novelist John Irving
John Irving
John Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978...
has criticised those who would dismiss the achievements of a lifetime because of a mistake made as a teenager.
Grass's biographer Michael Jürgs spoke of "the end of a moral institution".
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
had initially criticized Grass for keeping silent about his SS membership for 60 years, but after a few days had publicly withdrawn his criticism after reading the letter of Grass to the mayor of Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, and admitted that Grass "set the good example for the others."
On 14 August 2006, the ruling party of Poland, Law and Justice
Law and Justice
Law and Justice , abbreviated to PiS, is a right-wing, conservative political party in Poland. With 147 seats in the Sejm and 38 in the Senate, it is the second-largest party in the Polish parliament....
, called on Grass to relinquish his honorary citizenship of Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
. A 'Law and Justice' politician Jacek Kurski
Jacek Kurski
Jacek Kurski is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 26446 votes in 25 Gdańsk district, candidating from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość list....
stated, "It is unacceptable for a city where the first blood was shed, where World War II began, to have a Waffen-SS member as an honorary citizen." However, according to a 2010 poll ordered by city's authorities, the vast majority of Gdańsk citizens did not support Kurski's position. The mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, said that he opposed submitting the affair to the municipal council because it was not for the council to judge history.
Novels and collections
- Die Vorzüge der Windhühner (poems, 1956)
- Die bösen Köche. Ein Drama (play, 1956) translated as The Wicked Cooks in Four Plays (1967)
- Hochwasser. Ein Stück in zwei Akten (play, 1957) The Flood
- Onkel, Onkel. Ein Spiel in vier Akten (play, 1958) Mister, Mister
- Danziger TrilogieDanzig TrilogyThe Danzig Trilogy is a series of novels and novellas by German author Günter Grass about the interwar and wartime period in the Free City of Danzig .The three books in the trilogy are:...
- Die Blechtrommel (1959) trans. The Tin DrumThe Tin DrumThe Tin Drum is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. The novel is the first book of Grass's .- Plot summary :The story revolves around the life of Oskar Matzerath, as narrated by himself when confined in a mental hospital during the years 1952-1954...
(1959) - Katz und Maus (1961) trans. Cat and Mouse (1963)
- Hundejahre (1963) trans. Dog YearsDog Years (novel)Dog Years, published in Germany in 1963 as Hundejahre, is a novel by Günter Grass. It is the third and last volume of his Danzig Trilogy, the other two being The Tin Drum and Cat and Mouse....
(1965)
- Die Blechtrommel (1959) trans. The Tin Drum
- Gleisdreieck (poems, 1960)
- Die Plebejer proben den Aufstand (play, 1966) trans. The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising (1966)
- Ausgefragt (poems, 1967)
- Über das Selbstverständliche. Reden - Aufsätze - Offene Briefe - Kommentare (speeches, essays, 1968) trans. Speak out! Speeches, Open Letters, Commentaries (1969) with 3 additional pieces
- Örtlich betäubt (1969) trans. Local Anaesthetic (1970)
- Davor (play, 1970) trans. Max (1972) on a plot from Local Anaesthetic
- Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke (1972) trans. From the Diary of a Snail (1973)
- Der Bürger und seine Stimme. Reden Aufsätze Kommentare (speeches, essays, 1974)
- Denkzettel. Politische Reden und Aufsätze 1965-1976 (political essays and speeches, 1978)
- Der Butt (1977) trans. The Flounder (1978)
- Das Treffen in Telgte (1979) trans. The Meeting at Telgte (1981)
- Kopfgeburten oder Die Deutschen sterben aus (1980) trans. Headbirths, or, the Germans are Dying Out (1982)
- Widerstand lernen. Politische Gegenreden 1980–1983 (political speeches, 1984)
- Die Rättin (1986) trans. The Rat (1987)
- Zunge zeigen. Ein Tagebuch in Zeichnungen ("A Diary in Drawings", 1988) trans. Show Your Tongue (1989)
- Unkenrufe (1992) trans. The Call of the Toad (1992)
- Ein weites Feld (1995) trans. Too Far Afield (2000)
- Mein Jahrhundert (1999) trans. My CenturyMy CenturyMy Century is a novel written by Nobel prize winner Günter Grass. Each chapter is only a few pages long and focuses on a single year from 1900-1999. The story of each year is told in a different way, demarcated by changes in time, place, narrator and literary style....
(1999) - Im Krebsgang (2002) trans. CrabwalkCrabwalkCrabwalk, published in Germany in 2002 as Im Krebsgang, is a novel by Danzig-born German author Günter Grass. As in earlier works, Grass concerns himself with the effects of the past on the present; he interweaves various strands and combines fact and fiction...
(2002) - Letzte Tänze (poems, 2003)
- Beim Häuten der Zwiebel (2006) trans. Peeling the OnionPeeling the OnionPeeling the Onion is an autobiographical work by German Nobel Prize-winning author and playwright Günter Grass, published in 2006. It begins with the end of his childhood in Danzig when the Second World War breaks out, and ends with the author finishing his first great literary success, The Tin...
(2007) First volume of memoir. - Dummer August (poems, 2007)
- Die Box (2008) trans. The Box (2010) Second volume of memoir.
- Grimms Wörter (2010) Third volume of memoir.
Collections in English translation
- Four Plays (1967) including Ten Minutes to Buffalo
- In the Egg and Other Poems (1977)
- Two States One Nation? (1990)
External links
- Nobel prize Biobibliographical notes (in English, also available in French, German, and Swedish)
- Biographical timeline
- Concise biographical information, essays
- Grass' special links to Gdansk
- Less concise biographical information
- Grass admits serving with Waffen-SS The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
article - Survey of reactions to Grass's disclosure of his time in the Waffen-SS from the German and international press
- Grass' "Shame" Over SS Service
- Günter Grass 'Bookweb' on literary website The Ledge, with suggestions for further reading.
- Detailed article on his Waffen-SS membership
Interviews
- Gunter Grass discusses The Tin Drum on the BBC World ServiceBBC World ServiceThe BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
programme World Book ClubWorld Book ClubWorld Book Club is a radio programme on the BBC World Service. Each edition of the programme, which is broadcast on the first Saturday of the month with repeats into the following Monday, features a famous author discussing one of his or her books, often the most well-known one, with the public... - Video interview on PBS with Günter Grass by Charlie RoseCharlie RoseCharles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
- 2007 Real Audio interview at NYPL with Günter Grass and Norman MailerNorman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
by Andrew O'HaganAndrew O'HaganAndrew O'Hagan, FRSL is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. He is also an Editor at Large of Esquire and is currently a creative writing fellow at King's College London. He was selected by for inclusion in their 2003 list of the top 20 young British novelists. His novels appear... - Portrait on rosenthalusa.com