Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the

Nobel Prize for Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 ...

(1972).

Biography

Böll was born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, Germany, to a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and pacifist family that later opposed the rise of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

. Böll refused to join the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

during the 1930s. He was apprenticed to a bookseller before studying German studies and classics at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

. Conscripted into the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previou ...

, he served in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. In 1942, Böll married Annemarie Cech, with whom he had three sons; she later collaborated with him on a number of different translations into German of English language literature. During his war service, Böll was wounded four times and contracted typhoid. He was captured by

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, c ...

soldiers in April 1945 and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. After the war he returned to Cologne and began working in his family's cabinet shop and, for one year, worked in a municipal statistical bureau, an experience which he did not enjoy and which he left in order to take the risk of becoming a writer instead. Böll became a full-time writer at the age of 30. His first novel, ''Der Zug war pünktlich'' ('' The Train Was on Time''), was published in 1949. He was invited to the 1949 meeting of the Group 47 circle of German authors and his work was deemed to be the best presented in 1951. Many other novels, short stories, radio plays and essay collections followed.

Awards, honours and appointments

Böll was extremely successful and was lauded on a number of occasions. In 1953 he was awarded the Culture Prize of German Industry, the Southern German Radio Prize and the German Critics' Prize. In 1954 he received the prize of the Tribune de Paris. In 1955 he was given the French prize for the best foreign novel. In 1958 he gained the Eduard von der Heydt prize of the city of Wuppertal and the prize of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts). In 1959 he was given the Great Art Prize of the State of North-Rhine-Westphalia, the Literature Prize of the city of Cologne, and was elected to the Academy of Science and the Arts in Mainz. In 1960 he became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and gained the Charles Veillon Prize. In 1967 he was given the Georg Büchner Prize. In 1972 he received the

"for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature". He was given a number of honorary awards up to his death, such as the membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1974, and the Ossietzky Medal of 1974 (the latter for his defence of and contribution to global human rights). Böll was President of

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internation ...

, the worldwide association of writers, from 1971 to 1973. Böll was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...

in 1983 and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

in 1984.

Works

His work has been translated into more than 30 languages, and he remains one of Germany's most widely read authors. His best-known works are '' Billiards at Half-past Nine'' (1959), ''

And Never Said a Word ''And Never Said a Word'' (german: Und sagte kein einziges Wort) is a novel by German author Heinrich Böll, published in 1953. The novel deals with the thoughts and actions of Fred and Käte Bogner, a married couple. Fred, feeling sick of the po ...

'' (1953), ''

The Bread of Those Early Years ''The Bread of Those Early Years'' (german: Das Brot der frühen Jahre) is a 1962 West German film directed by Herbert Vesely, based on the novel '' The Bread of Those Early Years'' by Heinrich Böll. It was entered into the 1962 Cannes Film Fe ...

'' (1955), '' The Clown'' (1963), '' Group Portrait with Lady'' (1971), '' The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum'' (1974), and '' The Safety Net'' (1979). Despite the variety of themes and content in his work, there are certain recurring patterns: many of his novels and stories describe intimate and personal life struggling to sustain itself against the wider background of war, terrorism, political divisions, and profound economic and social transition. In a number of his books there are protagonists who are stubborn and eccentric individualists opposed to the mechanisms of the state or of public institutions. Böll was a devoted pacifist because of his experiences during WWII. All of his writing and novels during the post-war years had to do with the war and making sure it never happened again. He encapsulated it in the phrase "never war again".

Media scandals

The 1963 publication of '' The Clown'' was met with polemics in the press for its negative portrayal of the Catholic Church and the CDU party.Frank N. Magill (2013) The 20th Century A-GI: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 7
p.350
/ref> Böll was devoted to Catholicism but also deeply critical of aspects of it (particularly in its most conservative incarnations). In particular, he was unable to forget the Concordat of July 1933 between the Vatican and the Nazis, signed by the future Pope Pius XII, which helped confer international legitimacy on the regime at an early stage in its development. Böll's liberal views on religion and social issues inspired the wrath of conservatives in Germany.Frank Finlay (1996) ''On the Rationality of Poetry: Heinrich Böll's Aesthetic Thinking''
p.8
/ref> When constitutional reforms were passed in 1968 that cracked down on freedom, Böll spoke out against them. His 1972 article ''Soviel Liebe auf einmal'' (''So much love at once'') which accused the tabloid '' Bild'' of falsified journalism, was in turn retitled, at the time of publishing and against Böll's wishes, by '' Der Spiegel'', and the imposed title was used as a pretext to accuse Böll of sympathy with terrorism.Heinrich Böll
''Werke ''
Volume 18: 1971–1974. Köln : Kiepenheuer und Witsch, 2003, , pp.454-ff. This particular criticism was driven in large part by his repeated insistence upon the importance of due process and the correct and fair application of the law in the case of the

Baader-Meinhof Gang The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

. In his article for Der Spiegel entitled ''Sixty Million against Six'' he asked for a safeguard for Ulrike Meinhof in order to open a dialogue and prevent a major press campaign and police campaign. He received heavy criticism for this and was dubbed "the spiritual father of the violence" by one journalist in the '' Springer press''. The conservative press even attacked Böll's 1972 Nobel Prize, arguing that it was awarded only to "liberals and left-wing radicals". On 7 February 1974, the '' BZ'', Berlin's most widely-read newspaper at the time reported on Böll's home being searched. However, his home was only searched at 4 PM later that day, after the newspaper had already been circulated. In 1977, after the abduction of Hanns Martin Schleyer, 40 police searched Böll's house based on an anonymous tip they received that named Böll's son as an accomplice to the kidnappers. These claims turned out to be unfounded. The Christian Democrats placed Böll on a blacklist after this incident.

Influences

Böll was deeply rooted in his hometown of Cologne, with its strong

ism and its rather rough and drastic sense of humour. In the immediate post-war period, he was preoccupied with memories of the War and the effect it had—materially and psychologically—on the lives of ordinary people. He made them the heroes in his writing. His Catholicism was important to his work in ways that can be compared to writers such as

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

and Georges Bernanos though, as noted earlier, his perspective was a critical and challenging one towards Catholicism rather than a merely passive one. He was deeply affected by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

takeover of Cologne, as they essentially exiled him in his own town. Additionally, the destruction of Cologne as a result of the Allied bombing during World War II scarred him for life; he described the aftermath of the bombing in ''The Silent Angel''. Architecturally, the newly-rebuilt Cologne, prosperous once more, left him indifferent. (Böll seems to have been an admirer of William Morris – he let it be known that he would have preferred

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of ...

to have been left unfinished, with the 14th-century wooden crane at the top, as it had stood in 1848). Throughout his life, he remained in close contact with the citizens of Cologne, rich and poor. When he was in hospital, the nurses often complained about the "low-life" people who came to see their friend Heinrich Böll. Böll had a great fondness for Ireland, holidaying with his wife at their second home there, on the west coast. Given this connection, it is tempting to see resonances between Böll's work – specifically, his surreal play ''

A Mouthful of Earth ''A Mouthful of Earth'' (german: Ein Schluck Erde) is the only play written by the West German author and Nobel prizewinner Heinrich Böll. Set several hundred years in the future, it concerns a dystopian society living on pontoons above a flooded ...

'' – and that of his esoteric contemporary

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic ex ...

. Böll's concern about damage to the environment, so evident from his play, was a driving force behind the establishment of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Böll's villains are the figures of authority in government, business, the mainstream media, and in the Church, whom he castigates, sometimes humorously, sometimes acidly, for what he perceived as their conformism, lack of courage, self-satisfied attitude and abuse of power. The newspapers in his books have no qualms with lying about the characters or destroying their lives, much like what Böll himself experienced when he was accused of harboring and defending anarchists.

Analysis

His works have been dubbed ''

Trümmerliteratur ''Trümmerliteratur'' ("rubble literature"), also called ''Kahlschlagliteratur'' ("clear-cutting literature"), is a literary movement that began shortly after World War II in Germany and lasted until about 1950. It is primarily concerned with t ...

'' (the literature of the rubble). He was a leader of the German writers who tried to come to grips with the memory of

, the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

, and the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

and the guilt that came with them. Because of his refusal to avoid writing about the complexities and problems of the past he was labelled by some with the role of 'Gewissen der Nation' (conscience of the nation), in other words a catalyst and conduit for memorialisation and discussion in opposition to the tendency towards silence and taboo. This was a label that he himself was keen to jettison because he felt that it occluded a fair audit of those institutions which were truly responsible for what had happened. He lived with his wife in Cologne and in the Eifel region. However, he also spent time on Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland. His cottage there is now used as a guesthouse for international and Irish artists. He recorded some of his experiences in Ireland in his book '' Irish Journal''; later on, the people of Achill curated a festival in his honour. The Irish connection also influenced the translations into German by his wife Annemarie, which included works by Brendan Behan, J. M. Synge,

G. B. Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, Flann O'Brien and Tomás Ó Criomhthain. He was the president of the then West German P.E.N. and subsequently of the

International P.E.N. PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

organizations. He travelled frequently as a representative of the new, democratic Germany. His appearance and attitude were in complete contrast to the boastful, aggressive type of German which had become infamous all over the world during

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

's rule. Böll was particularly successful in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...

, as he seemed to portray the dark side of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

in his books; his books were sold by the millions in the

alone. When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union, he first took refuge in Böll's Eifel cottage. This was in part the result of Böll's visit to the Soviet Union in 1962 with a cultural delegation, the first of several trips he made to the country, during which he built friendships with several writers and connections with many producers of dissident literature. With Solzhenitsyn's meeting, Böll responded to the criticism from both sides that branded him an instrument of anti-socialist propaganda and on the other as a stooge for the East Germans with the following statement "perhaps many Germans do not read ''The Gulag Archipelago'' to experience the suffering of those to whom this monument is dedicated, but rather to forget the horror of their own history." Böll had previously recommended Solzhenitsyn for the Nobel Prize for Literature, under the auspices of his position in the West German P.E.N. When Solzhenitsyn was awarded the prize in 1976, he quoted from Böll's works to the reception committee. In 1976, Böll publicly left the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, "without falling away from the faith". He died in 1985 at the age of 67.

Legacy and influence

Böll's memory lives on, among other places, at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. A special Heinrich Böll Archive was set up in the Cologne Library to house his personal papers, bought from his family, but much of the material was damaged, possibly irreparably, when the building collapsed in March 2009. His cottage in Ireland has been used as a residency for writers since 1992. Eric Anderson composed a set of musical compositions based upon the books of Böll: ''Silent Angel: Fire and Ashes of Heinrich Böll'' (2017) Meyer Records.

Selected bibliography

Heinrich Boell, Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum 1974

* (1949) ''Der Zug war pünktlich'' ('' The Train Was on Time'') – novel * (1950) ''

Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa… "Stranger, Bear Word to the Spartans We..." (german: Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa...) is a short story by the German author Heinrich Böll (1917–1985). It tells the story of a seriously wounded soldier during World War II being carried on a s ...

'' – short story * (1951) ''Die schwarzen Schafe'' (''Black Sheep'') – short story * (1951) ''Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit'' (''Christmas Not Just Once a Year'') – short story * (1951) ''Wo warst du, Adam?'' (''And where were you, Adam?'') – novel * (1952) ''Die Waage der Baleks'' (''The Balek Scales'') – short story * (1953) ''Und sagte kein einziges Wort'' (''

'') – novel * (1954) ''Haus ohne Hüter'' (''House without Guardians'' ; ''Tomorrow and Yesterday'') – novel * (1955) ''Das Brot der frühen Jahre'' (''

'') – novel * (1957) ''Irisches Tagebuch'' (''Irish Journal'') – travel writing * (1957) ''Die Spurlosen'' (''Missing Persons'') – essays * (1958) ''Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen'' (''

Murke's Collected Silences "Murke's Collected Silences" (german: Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen) is a short story by German writer Heinrich Böll, first published in the '' Frankfurter Hefte'' in 1955 and in ''Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen und andere Satiren'' in ...

'', 1963) – short story * (1959) ''Billard um halb zehn'' ('' Billiards at Half-past Nine'') – novel * (1962) ''Ein Schluck Erde'' (''

'') – play * (1963) ''Ansichten eines Clowns'' ('' The Clown'') – novel * (1963) ''

Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral ("Anecdote on Lowering the work ethic") is a short story by Heinrich Böll about an encounter between an enterprising tourist and a small fisherman, in which the tourist suggests how the fisherman can improve ...

'' (''Anecdote Concerning the Lowering of Productivity'') – short story * (1964) ''Entfernung von der Truppe'' (''Absent Without Leave'') – two novellas * (1966) ''Ende einer Dienstfahrt'' (''End of a Mission'') – novel * (1971) ''Gruppenbild mit Dame'' ('' Group Portrait with Lady'') – novel * (1974) ''Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum'' ('' The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum'') – novel * (1979) ''Du fährst zu oft nach Heidelberg und andere Erzählungen'' (''You Go to Heidelberg Too Often'') – short stories * (1979) ''Fürsorgliche Belagerung'' ('' The Safety Net'') – novel * (1981) ''Was soll aus dem Jungen bloß werden? Oder: Irgendwas mit Büchern'' (''What's to Become of the Boy?'') – autobiography of Böll's school years 1933–1937 * (1982) ''Vermintes Gelände'' * (1982, written 1948) ''Das Vermächtnis'' ('' A Soldier's Legacy'') – novel * (1983) ''Die Verwundung und andere frühe Erzählungen'' (''The Casualty'') – unpublished stories from 1947–1952

Posthumous

* (1985) ''Frauen vor Flusslandschaft'' (''Women in a River Landscape'') * (1986) ''The Stories of Heinrich Böll'' – U.S. release * (1992, written 1949/50) ''Der Engel schwieg'' (''The Silent Angel'') – novel * (1995) ''Der blasse Hund'' – unpublished stories from 1937 & 1946–1952 * (2002, written 1946–1947) ''Kreuz ohne Liebe'' * (2004, written 1938) ''Am Rande der Kirche'' * (2011) ''The Collected Stories'' – reissues of translations, U.S. release

Translations

More than seventy translations of Annemarie and Heinrich Böll are listed in the bibliography published in 1995 by Werner Bellmann: works of Brendan Behan, Eilis Dillon,

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the M ...

, Paul Horgan, Bernard Malamud, J. D. Salinger,

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

et al. * ''Das harte Leben'' ( The Hard Life,

Brian O'Nolan Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth ce ...

), translated by Heinrich Böll, Hamburg, Nannen, 1966, 79. Illustrations by Patrick Swift.

Reviews

Murdoch, Brian, (1982), ''Sisyphean Labours'', which includes a review of ''The Safety Net'', in '' Cencrastus'' No. 9, Summer 1982, p. 46,

References

External links

Heinrich Böll official website

The Heinrich Böll Page
* * * *
''Lost Honor of Heinrich Böll'' documentary with Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boll, Heinrich 1917 births 1985 deaths 20th-century German novelists 20th-century German short story writers Georg Büchner Prize winners German male novelists German male short story writers German Nobel laureates German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States German Roman Catholics German short story writers PEN International Nobel laureates in Literature Members of the German Academy for Language and Literature Writers from Cologne People from the Rhine Province Roman Catholic writers Trümmerliteratur University of Cologne alumni Writers from North Rhine-Westphalia Writers from Bydgoszcz German Army personnel of World War II Critics of work and the work ethic Members of the American Philosophical Society