Martin Walser

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Martin Walser is a German playwright and novelist. He was born on 24th March 1927 in Wasserburg am Bodensee, on Lake Constance.

1 Life
2 Works
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Life

Martin Walser's parents kept an inn in Wasserburg. He described the environment in which he grew up in his novel Ein springender Brunnen. From 1938 to 1943 he was a pupil at the secondary school in Lindau and served in an anti-aircraft unit. He ended the Second World War as a solider in the Wehrmacht. After the end of the war he returned to his studies and completed his Abitur in 1946; he then studied literature, history and philosophy at Regensburg and Tübingen. He obtained his doctorate in 1951 for a thesis on Franz Kafka under the supervision of Friedrich Beißner.

His most important work is “Runaway Horse” which was not only very popular among readers , but also gained the recognition of literary critics.

While studying, Walser worked as a reporter for the Süddeutscher Rundfunk radio station, and wrote his first radio plays. In 1950 he married Katharina "Käthe" Neuner-Jehle. His four daughters from this marriage, Franziska Walser, Alissa Walser, Johanna Walser and Theresia Walser, are all career writers; Johanna sometimes collaborates with her father.

In October 1998, Walser caused controversy by introducing the phrase “using Auschwitz as a moral club” in his acceptance speech for the Frankfurt Book Fair’s prestigious Peace Prize. Ignatz Bubis, then the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, accused him of anti-Semitism sparking a heated public debate in Germany. This was only one of many comments made by Walser which are seen as anti-Semitic by some (Judisches Museum und Museum Judengasse Frankfurt am Main). ^[1]