German Nobel laureate novelist Gunter Grass passes away

German Nobel laureate novelist Guenter Grass passed away on 12 April 2015 in Berlin. He was 87.
Grass is recognized for his efforts to revive German culture in the aftermath of World War II and also had given voice and support to democratic discourse in the post war Germany.

About Guenter Grass

• Guenter Grass was born on 16 October 1927 in Danzig-Langfuhr (now the Polish city of Gdansk)
• Apart from being novelist, he was poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor.
• In 1944 at the age of 16, he had served in the Waffen-SS, the combat arm of former German dictator Adolf Hitler’s notorious paramilitary organization.
• Grass had made his literary reputation with “The Tin Drum” published in 1959. It was followed by “Cat and Mouse” and “Dog Years”. These novels were called the Danzig Trilogy named after his birth town.
• Awards and Honours- In 1999, he was awarded Nobel Prize for literature for his efforts to revive German literature after the Nazi era. Hermann Kesten Prize (1995).
• He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1993.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2015