Summary

Günter Grass (1927-2015) belonged to Group 47 from 1957 and became an internationally respected author of post-war German literature with his debut novel "The Tin Drum" (1959). His central motivation was the loss of his homeland, Gdansk, and his confrontation with the National Socialist past, which is reflected in many of his works. In 1999 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 2011, Dagmar Wittmers looked over Günter Grass's shoulder as he worked with his printer Fritz Margull or met his sister Waltraut. In Behlendorf and Lübeck, Grass looked back on his years in Paris, family life in Berlin, his time at the side of Willy Brandt, whose speeches he edited. Friends such as the Israeli writer Amos Oz or publisher Klaus Wagenbach, the actress Katharina Thalbach and his daughter Helene gave their views on Grass the man and artist.