27 Facts About Martin Walser

Martin Walser began his career as journalist for Suddeutscher Rundfunk, where he wrote and directed audio plays.

Martin Walser was a member of Group 47 from 1953 on.

Martin Walser published a trilogy of novels about the character Anselm Kristlein, beginning with Halbzeit in 1960, Das Einhorn in 1966 and ending with Der Sturz in 1973.

Martin Walser wrote plays, screenplays, story collections and essays.

Martin Walser is regarded, along with Heinrich Boll, Gunter Grass, and Siegfried Lenz, as one of Germany's most influential postwar authors.

Martin Walser was born on 24 March 1927 in Wasserburg, on Lake Constance.

Martin Walser's parents were coal merchants who kept an inn next to the train station in Wasserburg.

The second of three children, Martin Walser lost his father at age ten.

Martin Walser described the environment in which he grew up in his novel A Gushing Fountain.

Martin Walser denied that he knowingly entered the party, and assumed that he was enrolled by a garrison commander as part of a larger group without his knowledge.

Martin Walser then studied literature, history, and philosophy at the University of Regensburg and the University of Tubingen, achieving his doctorate in literature in 1951 with a thesis on Franz Kafka.

Martin Walser travelled to Czechoslovakia, England, France, Italy, and Poland as part of his job.

In 1950 Martin Walser married Katharina "Kathe" Neuner-Jehle; the couple had four daughters.

In 1958 Martin Walser lived in the US for three months and participated in the Harvard International Seminary.

Martin Walser returned to the US several times, invited by American universities to observe political conditions there.

In 2004 Martin Walser left his long-time publisher Suhrkamp Verlag for Rowohlt Verlag after the death of the Suhrkamp director Siegfried Unseld.

Martin Walser's subjects were often broken heroes who found it difficult to live up to the requirements of society or their own expectations.

Martin Walser wrote his most successful book, the novella Runaway Horse, in just two weeks.

Martin Walser expects his public to follow him in this.

In 1964, Martin Walser attended the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, and was involved in protests against the Vietnam War.

Martin Walser was friends with leading German Marxists such as Robert Steigerwald and even visited Moscow during this time.

Martin Walser died in Nussdorf on 26 July 2023, at age 96.

Martin Walser was awarded the Hermann Hesse Prize in 1957 for his first novel.

Martin Walser received the Georg Buchner Prize in 1981, the Ricarda Huch Prize of Darmstadt in 1990, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1998, and the Friedrich Nietzsche Prize in 2015 for his life's achievements, among many other awards.

In 1998 Martin Walser was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

Bubis withdrew his claim that Martin Walser had been intentionally incendiary, and Martin Walser maintained that his speech was unambiguous.

Martin Walser's books were published by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt, until 2003.