Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Böll (born December 21, 1917, Cologne, Germany—died July 16, 1985, Bornheim-Merten, near Cologne, West Germany) was a German writer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972. Böll’s ironic novels on the travails of German life during and after World War II capture the changing psychology of the German nation. The son of a cabinetmaker, Böll graduated from high school in 1937. He was called into compulsory labour service in 1938 and then...