Heinrich Böll Author

Letters From the War 1939-1945

Nobel Prize for Literature 1972

As a soldier Heinrich Böll took part in the Second World War from 1939 until the end of the war in 1945. And everyday during these years he wrote letters, mainly to Annemarie Cech who became his wife during the war.

These letters give evidence about everyday life as a soldier, they talk about the situation in occupied France and about German crimes in Russia, but at the same time they are – as Böll´s early writings – exercises for his literary work.

A remarkable piece of literature and a uniqe historical document by one of the most important German author´s of the 20th century.

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Sample Translations

Rights sold to

France: L´Iconoclaste (selection)

The title was published in the following countries: Netherlands, Russia, Spain.

Publisher: Kiepenheuer&Witsch
Release: 24.09.2001
ISBN: 978-3-462-03022-8
1656 Pages
Author: Heinrich Böll
Edited by: Jochen Schubert

Heinrich Böll Letters From the War 1939-1945

Heinrich Böll

In 1972, Heinrich Böll became the first German to win the Nobel Prize for literature since Thomas Mann in 1929. Born in Cologne, in 1917, Böll was reared in a liberal Catholic, pacifist family. Drafted into the Wehrmacht, he served on the Russian and French fronts and was wounded four times before he found himself in an American prison camp. After the war he began writing about his shattering experiences as a soldier. His first novel, The Train Was on Time , was published in 1949, and he went on to become one of the most prolific and important of post-war German writers. Böll served for several years as the president of International P.E.N. and was a leading defender of the intellectual freedom of writers throughout the world. He died in June 1985.