Günter Grass

Günter Grass, Nobel Prize-winning author, was born in Danzig (a city-state) in 1927. His parents had a grocery store in Danzig Langfuhr.

Grass attended the Danzig Gymnasium Conradinum. He was drafted into Arbeitsdienst and wounded in 1945, when he was put in an American prisoner 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 in Düsseldorf, then in Berlin. He also worked as an author and travelled frequently. He got married in 1954 and since 1960 lives in Berlin as well as part time in Schleswig-Holstein. He took an active role in the Social-Decmocratic (SPD) party and supported Willy Brandt. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979.

Günter Grass became active in the peace movement and visited Calcutta for six months.

From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Academy of Arts. His best known work in the English language is The Tin Drum[?] (Die Blechtrommel). He received dozens of international awards and in 1999 the highest honor was awarded to him with the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Representatives of the City of Bremen joined together to establish the Günter Grass Foundation, which is dedicated to establishing a centralized collection of his numerous works, especially his many personal readings and videos and films. The Günter Grass House in Lübeck houses exhibitions, an archive and a library.