Contents
Heinrich Böll
Writing unsparing portraits of postwar Germany, including The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.
Billiards at Half-Past Nine · The Clown
- Born
- 21 December 1917
- Birthplace
- Cologne, Germany
- Died
- 16 July 1985
More people
Heinrich Böll
German novelist and short-story writer who examined war’s aftermath, social conformity and abuses of power. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972.
Early life
Cologne childhood
Grew up in a Catholic family opposed to the rise of Nazism.
Books before war
Trained briefly as a bookseller and began university studies before conscription interrupted them.
Career
- 1939–1945
Military service
Was conscripted, served on several fronts and became a prisoner of war.
- Late 1940s–1950s
Building a writing career
Returned to Cologne and developed fiction about war and damaged civilian lives.
- 1971–1972
International recognition
Led International PEN and received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Selected work
Billiards at Half-Past Nine
Three generations confront the legacies of nationalism and violence.
The Clown
An outsider challenges the respectable society around him.
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
A woman’s life is damaged by sensationalist reporting and suspicion.
Beyond work
Translation partnership
His wife Annemarie was a translator; they worked together on English-language literature.
Public interventions
Spoke for civil liberties and supported writers facing political persecution.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and references ↗Institutional biography and career ↗Photo: Hoffmann, Harald. CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
