Background
Heinrich Böll was born on the 21st of December 1917 in Cologne, Germany. During the reign of King Henry VIII, Böll’s ancestors, strong Catholics, left England fleeing religious persecution from Anglican Church.
Heinrich Böll was born on the 21st of December 1917 in Cologne, Germany. During the reign of King Henry VIII, Böll’s ancestors, strong Catholics, left England fleeing religious persecution from Anglican Church.
As a schoolboy he he was one of the few boys who did not join the Hitler Youth movement. However, his elder brother, Alois, joined the movement to keep his father’s business afloat. Böll graduated from a high school in 1937 with a certificate which had two errors: Böll's birth date was incorrect and his choice of career – "book trade" was altered by the school principal.
Böll was able to begin his studies of Germanistics and Classical Philology during the summer term of 1939. Late in the summer of 1939 he was conscripted into the German Army shortly before the outbreak of the war. In 1946 he enrolled again at the University of Cologne in order to obtain a ration card.
In 1951 Böll quited the job and devoted himself entirely to writing.
Der Zug war pünktlich / The Train was on Time
Und sagte kein einziges Wort / And Never Said a Word
Haus ohne Hüter / The unguarded house
Irisches Tagebuch / Irish Journal
Billard um halbzehn / Billiards at half past nine
Ansichten eines Clowns / The Clown
Ende einer Dienstfahrt / The End of a Mission
Gruppenbild mit Dame / Group Portrait with Lady
Neue politische und literarische Schriften / New political and literary writings
Berichte zur Gesinnungslage der Nation / Reports on the state of mind of the nation
Fürsorgliche Belagerung / The Safety Net
Böll was born in a strongly Catholic family, but his concerns about the role of the Catholic Church in Germany grew in 1960 - 1969 and he criticized its close links with the ruling CDU (Christian Democratic Union) political party, whose central figure wass the German Chancellor - a former mayor of Cologne in the pre-Nazi period - Konrad Adenauer. Often returning to his Catholic faith, Böll examined the godlessness of the times but viewed critically the church itself. In January 1976, Heinrich Böll and his wife formally left the Catholic Church.
In his works he focused on the brutalities of the Nazi era and army life during World War II. After Willy Brandt (1913-1992) was elected leader the Social Democratic Party of Germany and began his eastward-facing policy, Böll became also politically active and in 1972 he participated in SPD's election campaign.
Member American Academy Arts and Letters (honorary), German Academy for Language and Poetry, Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association (past president), American Academy Arts and Sciences (honorary).
German Academy of Language and Literature / Mitglied der Deutschen Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung , Germany
1953 - 1985
Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists (international association) Club of the Federal Republic of Germany , Germany
1970 - 1972
International P.E.N. organization , England
1972 - 1973