German novelist, social critic and Nobel Prize winner, Günter Grass, whom many referred to as his country’s “moral conscience,” according to The New York Times, died in his home town of Lübeck, on Monday at the age of 87.
While being referred to as his country’s moral conscience, Grass also shared that in 2006 that “he had been a member of the Waffen-SS during World War II,” a shocking revelation for the country’s icon of morality.
After falling seriously ill rather quickly, his publisher Mr. Gerhard Steidl, learned that he had been hospitalized on Sunday. Mr. Steidl, his longtime publisher and friend said that he drank his final schnapps with Mr. Günter Grass eight days prior while working on the most recent book to be issued by Grass, entitled a “literary experiment” combining poetry and prose. The book is scheduled to be published this summer. Mr. Steidl concluded that Mr. Grass was “fully concentrated on his work until the last moment.”
Mr. Grass was no stranger to controversy, during his heated career as an author and coinciding position as a political activist. His words were his weapons; one poem prompted an international controversy when he criticized Israel for its volatile language toward Iran over its nuclear program.
In 1959, his international success “The Tin Drum”, hailed a “wildly inventive masterpiece” by The New York Times, earned him critical acclaim and widespread appeal for his visceral imagery and “audacious sweep of his literary imagination.”
Named one of the enduring literary works of the 20th century, “The Tin Drum” remains a remarkable masterpiece among his other works. His past as a Nazi in which he goes into further detail with his memoir, “Peeling the Onion,” was not enough of an obstruction to prevent this literary hero from achieving the heights of success in his field and making a lasting impression on the conscious community.
Novelist John Irving wrote of Mr. Grass: “You remain a hero to me, both as a writer and a moral compass.”
