2023-07-29 12:37:03
The death of Martin Walser at the age of 96 triggers sadness. The writer is honored as a world-class man of letters, a pugnacious spirit and an important intellectual.
Überlingen.
A “powerful personality”, a “world-class” author: the death of Martin Walser caused great dismay, compassion and sadness. According to the Rowohlt publishing house, the writer died at the age of 96. Walser was considered one of the most important contemporary writers in Germany. For decades, his texts and public speeches have drawn admiration, but also fierce criticism.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his condolences to Walser’s family on Saturday night via Twitter. “Generations have read his books, and his enthusiasm for arguments has given us many lively debates,” wrote the SPD politician.
Researched the mental life of the Germans
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) described Walser as an important intellectual. “In his literary works, he exposed the bourgeois facades of post-war Germany as hollow appearances and got to the bottom of the inner life of the Germans,” says Roth. In 1998, Walser’s remarks in his speech at the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade on how Germans were dealing with their past sparked fierce opposition.
At the time, Walser spoke of the “instrumentalization of our shame for current purposes”. “Auschwitz is not suitable for becoming a routine threat, a means of intimidation that can be used at any time, or a moral cudgel, or even just a compulsory exercise.” The writer received severe criticism for his words.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a letter of condolence: “All attempts to classify Martin Walser in a political or ideological ideology failed to recognize what drove this writer from the bottom: to express his own feelings as truthfully as possible.” Steinmeier described Walser as “a great person and a world-class writer” whom Germany had lost.
Walser was a native man
Walser was born on March 24, 1927 as the son of an innkeeper in Wasserburg on Lake Constance. He lived for several decades in Überlingen, not far from his birthplace. Walser had been married to his wife Käthe since 1950, they had four daughters, all of whom are artistically active. In 2009 it also became known that Walser is the father of journalist and publisher Jakob Augstein.
Walser penned dozens of novels, numerous short stories and collections of stories, numerous plays, radio plays and translations as well as essays, speeches and lectures. The best-known works include “A Fleeing Horse”, “Marriage in Philippsburg”, “A Springing Fountain”, “Death of a Critic”, “Soul Work” and “The Swan House”.
Although he traveled a lot and also worked as a guest lecturer in the USA, among other things, he remained strongly connected to his region: Walser was rooted in the south, a native person – maybe even a native writer. So many affected reactions came from the Southwest.
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) wrote that Walser had created literature that was staying. “His novels are a mirror and a place for reflection on German contemporary history and at the same time empathetic and detailed studies of the human species.” State Minister of Art Petra Olschowski (Greens) called Walser a “first-rate witness to the development of the Federal Republic in the post-war period and in reunified Germany”. He wrote contemporary history.
A pugnacious intellectual
Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) said: “With Martin Walser we are losing a great Baden-Württemberger and a world-class writer.” His alert, critical spirit and tireless work will be missed.
SWR director Kai Gniffke paid tribute to him as a writer and influential thinker: “With Martin Walser we have lost one of the most important authors of German post-war literature and a pugnacious intellectual.” He made an invaluable contribution to the cultural discourse of our time.
The Upper Swabian Literary Forum, once co-founded by Walser, wrote: “All of us at the Upper Swabian Literary Forum mourn for him”. The head of the facility, Franz Hoben, announced a forum to commemorate Walser in the fall. “I’m thinking of lectures on the work and readings from the work of Martin Walser.”
The Rowohlt publishing house announced that with Martin Walser they were losing one of their most important authors, who shaped German culture as a writer and homo politicus for decades. Bavaria’s Minister of Art Markus Blume (CSU) wrote: “We learned with him to better understand ourselves and our society.” (dpa)
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