Biography. Heinrich Böll: the most Russian German writer Unloved for the truth

(1917-1985) German writer

People first started talking about Heinrich Böll in the late 40s. 20th century, when the German magazine Welt und Worth published a review of his first book, “The Train Arrives on Time.” The article ended with the editor's prophetic remark: "You can expect better from this author." Indeed, during his lifetime, critics recognized Böll as “the best writer of everyday life in Germany in the mid-20th century.”

The future writer was born in the ancient German city of Cologne in the family of a hereditary cabinetmaker. Fleeing persecution from supporters of the Anglican Church, Böll's ancestors fled England during the reign of King Henry VIII. Henry was the sixth and youngest child in the family. Like most of his peers, at the age of seven he began studying at a four-year public school. Neither he nor his father liked the spirit of drill that reigned in her. Therefore, after completing the course, he transferred his son to the Greco-Latin gymnasium, where classical languages, literature and rhetoric were studied.

Already from the second grade, Heinrich was considered one of the best students, wrote poems and stories, which repeatedly received prizes in competitions. On the advice of his teacher, he even sent his works to the city newspaper, and although not a single story was published, the newspaper editor found the young man and advised him to continue his literary studies. Heinrich later refused to join the Hitler Youth (the youth organization of the Nazi Party) and was one of the few who did not want to participate in fascist marches.

Having graduated from high school with honors, Heinrich did not continue his education at the university, where the Nazis dominated. He became an apprentice at a second-hand bookstore that belonged to one of the family’s acquaintances, and at the same time he educated himself, having read almost all of the world’s literature in a few months. However, the attempt to escape from reality, to withdraw into one’s own world was unsuccessful. In the fall of 1938, Böll was recruited to perform labor service: for almost a year he worked in logging in the Bavarian black forests.

Returning home, he entered the University of Cologne, but studied there for only a month, because in July 1939 he was drafted into the army. Henry came first to Poland and then to France. In 1942, having received a short leave, he came to Cologne and married his old friend Annemarie Cech. After the war they had two sons.

In the summer of 1943, the unit in which Böll served was sent to the Eastern Front. Subsequently, he reflected his experiences associated with leaving in the story “The Train Arrives on Time” (1949). On the way, the train was blown up by partisans, Böll was wounded in the arm, and instead of the front he ended up in the hospital. After recovery, he again went to the front and this time was wounded in the leg. Having barely recovered, Böll went to the front again and after just two weeks of fighting he received a shrapnel wound to the head. He spent more than a year in the hospital, after which he was forced to return to his unit. However, he was able to obtain legal leave for injury and returned to Cologne for a short time.

Böll wanted to move to the village with his wife’s relatives, but the war was ending and American troops entered Cologne. After several weeks spent in a prison camp, Böll returned to his hometown and continued his studies at the university. To provide for his family, he simultaneously began working in the family workshop, which his older brother inherited.

At the same time, Böll again began writing stories and sending them to various magazines. In August 1947, his story “Farewell” was published in the magazine “Carousel”. Thanks to this publication, its author entered the circle of young writers grouped around the Klich magazine. In this anti-fascist publication in 1948-1949. A number of Böll's stories appeared, later combined into the collection “Wanderer, When You Come to Spa...” (1950). The collection was published by the Berlin publishing house Middelhauw almost simultaneously with the publication of Böll's first story, “The Train Is Never Late” (1949).

In it, Böll convincingly and dynamically spoke about the tragic fate of those whose young years coincided with the World War, and showed the pattern of the emergence of anti-fascist views caused by the internal disorder and disunity of people. The publication of the story brought fame to the aspiring writer. He joined the literary “group of 47” and began actively publishing his articles and reviews. In 1951, Böll was awarded the group prize for the story “Black Sheep.”

1952 was a milestone in the writer’s life, when his novel “Where Have You Been, Adam?” was published. In it, Böll, for the first time in German literature, spoke about the harm fascism caused to the destinies of ordinary people. Critics immediately accepted the novel, but the same could not be said about readers: the book's circulation sold out with difficulty. Böll later wrote that he “frightened the reader when he expressed too uncompromisingly and harshly what was on everyone’s lips.” The novel was translated into many European languages. He brought Böll fame outside Germany.

After the publication of the novels “And He Didn’t Say a Single Word” (1953), “The House without a Master” (1954), and the story “Bread of the Early Years” (1955), critics recognized Böll as the largest German writer of the front-line generation. Realizing the need to go beyond one topic, Böll dedicated his next novel, Billiards at Half Nine (1959), to the history of a family of Cologne architects, masterfully inscribing the fates of three generations into the events of European history.

The writer's rejection of bourgeois acquisitiveness, philistinism, and hypocrisy becomes the ideological basis of his work. In the story “Through the Eyes of a Clown,” he tells the story of a hero who prefers to play the role of a jester in order not to submit to the hypocrisy of the society around him.

The release of each writer's work becomes an event. Böll is actively translated all over the world, including to the USSR. The writer travels a lot; in less than ten years he has traveled almost the whole world.

Böll's relations with the Soviet authorities were quite complicated. In 1962 and 1965, he came to the USSR, vacationed in the Baltic states, worked in archives and museums, and wrote a film script about Dostoevsky. He clearly saw the shortcomings of the Soviet system, wrote openly about them, and spoke out in defense of persecuted writers.

At first, his harsh tone was simply “not noticed,” but after the writer provided his house for the residence of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was expelled from the USSR, the situation changed. Böll was no longer published in the USSR, and for several years his name was under an unspoken ban.

In 1972, he published his most significant work - the novel “Group Portrait with a Lady,” which tells a semi-anecdotal story about how an elderly man restores the honor of his friend. The novel was recognized as the best German book of the year and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. “This revival,” said the chairman of the Nobel Committee, “is comparable to the resurrection from the ashes of a culture that seemed doomed to complete destruction, but has given new shoots.”

In 1974, Böll published the novel “The Desecrated Honor of Katharina Blum,” in which he spoke about a heroine who did not come to terms with her circumstances. The novel, which ironically interpreted the life values of post-war Germany, caused a great public outcry and was filmed. At the same time, the right-wing press began persecuting the writer, who was called the “spiritual mentor of terrorism.” After the CDU's victory in the parliamentary elections, the writer's house was searched.

In 1980, Böll became seriously ill and doctors were forced to amputate part of his right leg. For several months the writer found himself bedridden. But a year later he was able to overcome the disease and returned to an active life.

In 1982, at the international congress of writers in Cologne, Böll gave a speech “Images of Enemies”, in which he recalled the danger of revanchism and totalitarianism. Soon after this, unknown persons set fire to his house, and part of the writer’s archive burned down. Then the Cologne city council awarded the writer the title of honorary citizen, gave him a new house and acquired his archive.

On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the German surrender, Böll wrote “Letter to My Sons.” In a small but capacious work, he openly spoke about how difficult it was for him to reassess the past, what internal torment he experienced in 1945. It so happened that in 1985, Böll published his first novel, “A Soldier’s Inheritance.” It was completed back in 1947, but the writer did not publish it, considering it immature.

Having talked about the war in the East, the writer wanted to fully reckon with the past. The same theme is heard in his last novel, “Women in a River Landscape,” which went on sale just a few days after Böll’s death.

Speeches and meetings with readers caused an exacerbation of the disease. In July 1985, Böll was again in the hospital. After two weeks there was an improvement, the doctors recommended that he go to a sanatorium to continue treatment. Böll returned home, but the next day he unexpectedly died of a heart attack. It is symbolic that just a few hours before, the writer signed his latest non-fiction book, “The Ability to Grieve,” for publication.

Heinrich Böll- German writer and translator.

Born in Cologne, one of the largest cities in the Rhine Valley, in a large family of cabinetmaker Victor Böll and Marie (Hermanns) Böll. Böll's ancestors fled England under Henry XIII: like all zealous Catholics, they were persecuted by the Church of England.

After graduating from high school in Cologne, Böll, who had been writing poetry and stories since early childhood, was one of the few students in his class who did not join the Hitler Youth. However, a year after graduating from school, the young man was forced into forced labor, and in 1939 he was called up for military service. Böll served as a corporal on the Eastern and Western fronts, was wounded several times and was eventually captured by the Americans in 1945, after which he spent several months in a prisoner of war camp in the south of France.

Upon returning to his hometown, Böll studied for a short time at the University of Cologne, then worked in his father’s workshop, in the city bureau of demographic statistics and did not stop writing - in 1949 his first story “The Train Arrived on Time” was published and received a positive review from critics ( Der Zug war punktlich), a story about a young soldier who faces a return to the front and a quick death. “The Train Arrived on Time” is the first in a series of books by Böll that describes the meaninglessness of war and the hardships of the post-war years; these are “Wanderer, when you come to Spa...” (Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa, 1950), “Where have you been, Adam?” (Wo warst du, Adam?, 1951) and “The Bread of the Early Years” (Das Brot der fruhcn Jahre, 1955). Böll's authorial style, writing simply and clearly, was focused on the revival of the German language after the pompous style of the Nazi regime.

Moving away from the style of “ruin literature” in his first novel, “Billiards at half past nine” (Billiard um halbzehn, 1959), Böll tells the story of a family of famous Cologne architects. Although the action of the novel is limited to just one day, through reminiscences and digressions the novel tells the story of three generations - the panorama of the novel covers the period from the last years of Kaiser Wilhelm's reign to the prosperous "new" Germany of the 50s. “Billiards at Half Nine” differs significantly from Böll’s earlier works - not only in the scale of presentation of the material, but also in its formal complexity. “This book,” wrote the German critic Henry Plaard, “brings great consolation to the reader, for it shows the healing power of human love.”

In the 60s, Böll's works became even more complex compositionally. The action of the story “Through the Eyes of a Clown” (Ansichten eines Clowns, 1963) also takes place over the course of one day; in the center of the story is a young man who speaks on the phone and on whose behalf the story is told; the hero prefers to play the role of a jester rather than submit to the hypocrisy of post-war society. “Here we again encounter the main themes of Böll: the Nazi past of the representatives of the new government and the role of the Catholic Church in post-war Germany,” wrote the German critic Dieter Hoenicke.

The theme of “Absent without leave” (Entfernung von der Truppe, 1964) and “The end of a business trip” (Das Ende einer Dienstfahrt, 1966) is also opposition to official authorities. More voluminous and much more complex compared to previous works, the novel “Group Portrait with a Lady” (Gruppenbild mit Dame, 1971) is written in the form of a reportage, consisting of interviews and documents about Leni Pfeiffer, thanks to which the fates of sixty more people are revealed. “Tracing the life of Leni Pfeiffer over half a century of German history,” wrote the American critic Richard Locke, “Böll created a novel that glorifies universal human values.”

“Group Portrait with a Lady” was mentioned when Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize (1972), received by the writer “for his work, which combines a wide scope of reality with high art of creating characters and which has become a significant contribution to the revival of German literature.” “This revival,” said the representative of the Swedish Academy, Karl Ragnar Girow, in his speech, “is comparable to the resurrection of a culture rising from the ashes, which, it seemed, was doomed to complete destruction and, nevertheless, to our common joy and benefit, gave new shoots "

By the time Böll received the Nobel Prize, his books had become widely known not only in West Germany, but also in East Germany and even in the Soviet Union, where several million copies of his works had been sold. At the same time, Böll played a prominent role in the activities of the PEN Club, an international writers' organization, through which he provided support to writers who were subjected to oppression in communist countries. After Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, he lived with Böll before leaving for Paris.

In the same year, when Böll assisted Solzhenitsyn, he wrote a journalistic story “The Desecrated Honor of Katharina Blum” (Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum), in which he sharply criticized corrupt journalism. This is a story about a wrongly accused woman who ends up killing the reporter who slandered her. In 1972, when the press was full of material about the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, Böll wrote the novel Under the Escort of Care (Fursorgliche Blagerung. 1979), which describes the devastating social consequences arising from the need to strengthen security measures during mass violence.

In 1942, Böll married Anna Marie Cech, who bore him two sons. Together with his wife, Böll translated into German such American writers as Bernard Malamud and Jerome D. Salinger. Böll died at the age of 67, while near Bonn, visiting one of his sons. In the same 1985, the writer’s very first novel, “A Soldier’s Inheritance” (Das Vermachtnis), was published, which was written in 1947, but was published for the first time. "A Soldier's Legacy" tells the story of the bloody events that took place during the war in the Atlantic and Eastern Front areas. Despite the fact that some strain is felt in the novel, notes the American writer William Boyd, “A Soldier’s Inheritance” is a mature and very significant work; “He exudes hard-won clarity and wisdom.”

David Belle, the man who showed the whole world what parkour is, never dreamed of working in the film industry. Since childhood, the man dreamed of glorifying a new and interesting sport. But as he grew older and achieved some success, Belle did not refuse an interesting opportunity to prove himself in a new business. David, whose body, covered with tattoos, moves in space at incredible speed, has become one of the favorite actors and stuntmen.

Childhood and youth

The athlete and actor was born on April 29, 1973 in the small town of Fécamp, located in northwestern France (the future parkour athlete is French by nationality). The boy became the second child of the spouses Raymond and Monique Belle. Both children were raised by their grandfather, who served as a firefighter most of his life. After serving in the army, David’s father, and in the future the child’s older brother, chose the same fate for himself.

It is not surprising that the boy’s childhood was filled with stories about duty, honor and proper self-development. His father instilled a love for sports in David. A man who underwent special training in the army told the boy about a technique that in the future was called parkour. To achieve success in this sport, the child practiced gymnastics, athletics, mountaineering and martial arts.

At the age of 15, the teenager decided that education was not a necessity at all and dropped out of school. The young man, whose height had already reached 1.79 m by this time, leaves his family and goes in search of like-minded people. Soon David meets Sebastian Foucan. The young people had similar interests, and in 1987 the Yamakashi team was born.

Team Yamakashi

Initially, the parkour team consisted only of the duo mentioned above, but soon 7 more people joined the founders. In parallel with his parkour training, David received certificates allowing him to professionally provide first aid. Soon after this, Yamakashi disbanded. The team was offered to participate in the production of Notre Dame De Paris, all team members agreed, except for Bell and Foucan.

After a couple of months, David and Sebastian also decided to stop training together. There was a lull in the biography of the extreme sportsman, which depressed the young man. David joins the fire department, but a broken wrist changes Bell's plans.

Films and parkour

While the injury was healing, David was bored. Out of nothing to do, the young man shot and edited several videos demonstrating the young man’s success in parkour. The clips posted on the Internet were noticed by young directors who were inspired by David, and his life's work inspired the creation of a documentary film. Bell liked working on camera, and the young man began to master the art of cinema.

In 1997, David made his debut appearance in a feature film. The young man played in an episode of the series “Louis Page”. This was followed by a series of minor roles.

The first serious work in cinema took place only in 2004. Director Luc Besson invited Bell to his film “District 13”. David embodied on the screen the image of a young man named Leito. The guy grew up in a poor neighborhood and considered his own sister, who was kidnapped by local bandits, to be the only ray of hope. Together with a policeman (played by stuntman Cyril Raffaelli), the men try to save the girl.

After the premiere of the action film, in which Bell choreographed and performed all the stunts himself, the man woke up famous. Together with David, parkour also gained world fame. In 2008, the man got a small role in the action film “Babylon AD.” In addition to working in front of the camera, the parkour artist was entrusted with staging several key action scenes.

In 2009, the actor and stuntman experienced a new wave of popularity. The reason is that the film “District 13: Ultimatum” is being released. Luc Besson again entrusted the leading roles to David Bell and Cyril Raffaelli, but the long-awaited sequel did not repeat the success of the first film.

A minor, but very colorful role was found for David in Besson’s new film “Malavita”. The man transforms into a mafia hitman named Mezzo, hired to kill the main character and his family.

In 2014, Bell was invited to film the remake of “District 13.” The film was called “District 13: Brick Mansions”, and the action of the film was transferred to the USA. David again got the main role, and the actor became the parkour artist’s filming partner. Bell, who spoke English with an accent, had to be re-voiced.

In parallel with filming, the man did not forget about the development of parkour. David participated in the creation of various sports competitions, staged specific scenes in action films filmed in Europe and Asia, and trained regularly himself.

In 2017, the man was invited to shoot a Porsche advertisement. David Bell presented to the public a new car of the brand - 911 GT2 RS.

Personal life

As much as the man is talkative when journalists ask him about parkour, David is just as taciturn about his family. A man does not talk about his wife in an interview. It is not even known whether the spouses are officially married and what the name of Bella’s beloved is.

The couple has 3 sons: Sebastian was born in 2005, Benjamin in 2009, and Isaiah Belle in 2012. Photos with children who are often found in "Instagram" stuntman, full of love and genuine tenderness.

David Belle now

In February 2018, the actor went to the fantastic film festival held annually in Gerardmer. The man was invited to become a member of the jury. The competition includes films in both science fiction and horror genres.

In March of the same year, the premiere of the film “Risking My Life” took place, in which David got the role of the main villain. The movie was directed, written by the screenplay, and portrayed on screen by Bell's colleague Li Bingyuan.

April 2018 David Bell met in Japan. The stuntman attended the first stage of the Parkour World Cup. The man followed the competition closely and at the end took a photo with the winners.

Filmography

2001 – “Transfer”
2002 – “Femme Fatale”
2004 – “13th District”
2005 – “A Better World”
2008 – “Babylon N.E.”
2009 – “District 13: Ultimatum”
2013 – “Malavita”
2014 – “District 13: Brick Mansions”
2015 – “Jaya”
2016 – “Superexpress”
2018 – “Risking Your Life”

Heinrich Theodor Boll (German: Heinrich Theodor Boll, December 21, 1917, Cologne - July 16, 1985, Langenbroich) - German writer (Germany), translator, Nobel Prize laureate in literature (1972). Heinrich Böll was born on December 21, 1917 in Cologne, into a liberal Catholic family of a craftsman. From 1924 to 1928 he studied at a Catholic school, then continued his studies at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium in Cologne. He worked as a carpenter and worked in a bookstore.

From 1924 to 1928 he studied at a Catholic school, then continued his studies at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium in Cologne. After graduating from high school in Cologne, Böll, who had been writing poetry and stories since early childhood, was one of the few students in his class who did not join the Hitler Youth.

After graduating from classical gymnasium (1936), he worked as an apprentice salesman in a second-hand bookstore. A year after graduating from school, he is sent to work in a labor camp under the Imperial Labor Service.

In the summer of 1939, Böll entered the University of Cologne, but in the fall he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. During the Second World War of 1939-1945, he fought as an infantryman in France and participated in battles in Ukraine and Crimea. In 1942, Böll married Anna Marie Cech, who bore him two sons. In April 1945, Böll surrenders to the Americans.

After captivity, he worked as a carpenter, and then returned to the University of Cologne and studied philology.

Böll began publishing in 1947. The first works were the story “The Train Arrives on Time” (1949), the collection of short stories “Wanderer, When You Come to Spa...” (1950) and the novel “Where Have You Been, Adam?” (1951, Russian translation 1962).

In 1950 Belle became a member of Group 47. In 1952, in the programmatic article “Recognition of the Literature of Ruins,” a kind of manifesto of this literary association, Bell called for the creation of a “new” German language - simple and truthful, associated with concrete reality. In accordance with the proclaimed principles, Bell's early stories are distinguished by stylistic simplicity, they are filled with vital concreteness.

Bell's collections of stories “Not Just for Christmas” (1952), “The Silence of Doctor Murke” (1958), “City of Familiar Faces” (1959), “When the War Began” (1961), “When the War Ended” (1962) found a response not only among the general reading public and critics. In 1951, the writer received the Group 47 Prize for the story “Black Sheep” about a young man who does not want to live according to the laws of his family (this theme would later become one of the leading ones in Bell’s work).

From stories with simple plots, Belle gradually moved on to more voluminous things: in 1953 he published the story “And He Didn’t Say a Single Word,” a year later - the novel “The House without a Master.” They were written about recent experiences, they recognized the realities of the first very difficult post-war years, and touched upon the problems of the social and moral consequences of the war.

The fame of one of the leading prose writers in Germany brought Bell the novel “Billiards at half past nine” (1959). A notable phenomenon in German literature was Böll’s next great work, “Through the Eyes of a Clown” (1963).

Together with his wife, Böll translated such American writers as Bernard Malamud and Salinger into German.

In 1967, Böll received the prestigious German Georg Büchner Prize. In 1971, Böll was elected president of the German PEN Club, and then headed the international PEN Club. He held this post until 1974.

In 1972, he was the first of the German writers of the post-war generation to be awarded the Nobel Prize. The decision of the Nobel Committee was largely influenced by the release of the writer’s new novel, “Group Portrait with a Lady” (1971), in which the writer tried to create a grandiose panorama of the history of Germany in the 20th century.

Heinrich Böll tried to appear in the press demanding an investigation into the deaths of members of the RAF. His story “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, or how violence arises and what it can lead to” (1974) was written by Böll under the impression of attacks on the writer in the West German press, which not without reason dubbed him the “mastermind” of terrorists.

The central problem of “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum,” like the problem of all of Böll’s later works, is the intrusion of the state and the press into the personal life of the common man. Böll’s last works, “The Careful Siege” (1979) and “Image, Bonn, Bonn” (1981), also speak about the danger of state surveillance of its citizens and the “violence of sensational headlines.”

In 1979, the novel “Under the Escort of Care” (Fursorgliche Belagerung), written back in 1972, when the press was filled with materials about the terrorist group Baader Meinhof, was published. The novel describes the devastating social consequences that arise from the need to increase security measures during mass violence.

In 1981, the novel “What will happen to the boy, or Some business regarding the book part” (Was soll aus dem Jungen bloss werden, oder: Irgend was mit Buchern) was published - memories of his early youth in Cologne.

Bell was the first and, perhaps, the most popular West German writer of the young post-war generation in the USSR, whose books were published in Russian translation. From 1952 to 1973, more than 80 stories, novels and articles by the writer were published in Russian, and his books were published in much larger print runs than in his homeland, Germany.

The writer visited the USSR several times, but was also known as a critic of the Soviet regime. Hosted A. Solzhenitsyn and Lev Kopelev, expelled from the USSR. In the previous period, Belle illegally exported Solzhenitsyn's manuscripts to the West, where they were published. As a result, Böll's works were banned from publication in the Soviet Union. The ban was lifted only in the mid-1980s. with the beginning of perestroika.

Böll died on July 16, 1985 in Langenbroich. In the same 1985, the writer’s very first novel was published - “A Soldier’s Inheritance” (Das Vermachtnis), which was written in 1947, but was published for the first time.

In 1987, the Heinrich Böll Foundation was created in Cologne, a non-governmental organization that works closely with the Green Party (its branches exist in many countries, including Russia). The Foundation supports projects in the field of development of civil society, ecology, and human rights.

Heinrich Böll was born on December 21, 1917 in Cologne, into a liberal Catholic family of a craftsman. From 1924 to 1928 he studied at a Catholic school, then continued his studies at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium in Cologne. He worked as a carpenter and worked in a bookstore.

In the summer of 1939, Böll entered the University of Cologne, but in the fall he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. During World War II, Böll is captured by the Americans. After the war, he returned to the University of Cologne and studied philology.

In 1971, Böll was elected president of the German PEN Club, and then headed the international PEN Club. He held this post until 1974.

Heinrich Böll tried to appear in the press demanding an investigation into the deaths of RAF members.

The writer visited the USSR several times, but was also known as a critic of the Soviet regime. Hosted A. Solzhenitsyn and Lev Kopelev, expelled from the USSR.

Belle Heinrich (December 21, 1917, Cologne - July 16, 1985, ibid.), German writer. Born on December 21, 1917, into a liberal Catholic family of a cabinetmaker, craftsman, and sculptor. From 1924 to 1928 he studied at a Catholic school, then continued his studies at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium in Cologne. After graduating from high school in Cologne, Böll, who had been writing poetry and stories since early childhood, was one of the few students in his class who did not join the Hitler Youth. However, a year after graduating from school, he is forced into forced labor. He worked in a bookstore. After graduating from classical gymnasium (1936), he worked as an apprentice salesman in a second-hand bookstore. In April 1939, he enrolled at the University of Cologne, where he planned to study literature, but a few months later he received a draft notice from the Wehrmacht. In 1939-1945, he fought as an infantryman in France and took part in battles in Ukraine and Crimea. In 1942, Böll married Anna Marie Cech, who bore him two sons. Together with his wife, Böll translated such American writers as Bernard Malamud and Salinger into German. At the beginning of 1945, he deserted and ended up in an American prisoner of war camp. After his release, he worked as a carpenter and then continued his education at the university, studying philology. Böll's literary debut took place in 1947, when his story “The Message” was published in one of the Cologne magazines. Two years later, the aspiring writer’s story “The Train Came on Time” (1949), which told about a soldier who, like Belle himself, deserted from the army, was published as a separate book. In 1950 Belle became a member of Group 47. In 1952, in the programmatic article “Recognition of the Literature of Ruins,” a kind of manifesto of this literary association, Bell called for the creation of a “new” German language - simple and truthful, associated with concrete reality. In accordance with the proclaimed principles, Bell's early stories are distinguished by stylistic simplicity, they are filled with vital concreteness. Bell's collections of stories “Not Just for Christmas” (1952), “The Silence of Doctor Murke” (1958), “City of Familiar Faces” (1959), “When the War Began” (1961), “When the War Ended” (1962) found a response not only among the general reading public and critics. In 1951, the writer received the Group 47 Prize for the story “Black Sheep” about a young man who does not want to live according to the laws of his family (this theme would later become one of the leading ones in Bell’s work). From stories with simple plots, Belle gradually moved on to more voluminous things: in 1953 he published the story “And He Didn’t Say a Single Word,” a year later - the novel “The House without a Master.” They were written about recent experiences, they recognized the realities of the first very difficult post-war years, and touched upon the problems of the social and moral consequences of the war. The fame of one of the leading prose writers in Germany brought Bell the novel “Billiards at half past nine” (1959). Technically, it takes place over the course of one day, September 6, 1958, when the hero named Heinrich Fehmel, a famous architect, celebrates his eightieth birthday. In fact, the action of the novel contains not only events from the life of three generations of the Femel family, but also half a century of German history. “Billiards at Half Nine” consists of internal monologues of eleven characters, the same events are presented to the reader from different points of view, so that a more or less objective picture of the historical life of Germany in the first half of the 20th century emerges. Böll's novels are characterized by a simple and clear style of writing, focused on the revival of the German language after the pompous style of the Nazi regime. A unique embodiment of Germany is the grandiose Abbey of St. Anthony, in a design competition for the construction of which Heinrich Femel once won and which was blown up by his son Robert, who went into the anti-fascist underground after the death of his wife. Post-war Germany, in which the heroes of the novel live, turns out, in Böll’s opinion, not much better than pre-war: lies and money reign here too, with which you can buy off the past. A notable phenomenon in German literature was the following pain

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Bell's best work is “Through the Eyes of a Clown” (1963). Böll's uneventful novel is, in fact, an internal monologue of the main character, circus performer Hans Schnier, the son of a millionaire industrialist, who recalls the years of his childhood during the war, his post-war youth, and reflects on art. After the hero was abandoned by his beloved Marie, whom Shnir considers “his wife before God,” he begins to fall out of the rhythm of life, his “two congenital diseases - melancholy and migraine” worsen. For Hans, alcohol becomes the cure for failure in life. As a result, Shnir cannot enter the circus arena and is forced to temporarily interrupt his performances. Returning to his apartment in Bonn, he calls his friends to find Marie, who became the wife of the Catholic figure Züpfner, but to no avail. From the hero’s memoirs, the reader understands that he fell out of life long before he lost his beloved - even in adolescence, when he refused to participate in the Hitler Youth exercises with his classmates and, later, at the age of twenty, when he rejected his father’s offer to continue his work, choosing the path of a free artist. The hero does not find support in anything: neither in love, nor in an established life, nor in religion. “A Catholic by intuition,” he sees how churchmen violate the letter and spirit of Christian commandments at every step, and those who sincerely follow them in modern society can turn into an outcast. In 1967, Böll received the prestigious German Georg Büchner Prize. The pinnacle of international recognition was the election of Böll in 1971 as president of the International PEN Club, before which he had already been president of the German PEN Club. He held this post until 1974. In 1967, Böll received the prestigious German Georg Büchner Prize. And in 1972 he was the first of the German writers of the post-war generation to be awarded the Nobel Prize. The decision of the Nobel Committee was largely influenced by the release of the writer’s new novel, “Group Portrait with a Lady” (1971), in which the writer tried to create a grandiose panorama of the history of Germany in the 20th century. At the center of the novel, described through the eyes of many people, is the life of Leni Gruiten-Pfeiffer, whose personal fate turned out to be closely intertwined with the history of her homeland. In the early 1970s, after a series of terrorist attacks carried out by West German ultra-left youth groups, Bell spoke in their defense, justifying the horrific actions by the unreasonable internal policies of the West German authorities and the impossibility of individual freedom in modern German society. Heinrich Böll tried to appear in the press demanding an investigation into the deaths of RAF members. His story “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, or how violence arises and what it can lead to” (1974) was written by Bell under the influence of attacks on the writer in the West German press, which, not without reason, dubbed him the “mastermind” of terrorists. The central problem of “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum,” like the problem of all of Böll’s later works, is the intrusion of the state and the press into the personal life of the common man. Böll’s last works, “The Careful Siege” (1979) and “Image, Bonn, Bonn” (1981), also speak about the danger of state surveillance of its citizens and the “violence of sensational headlines.” In 1979, the novel “Under the Escort of Care” (Fursorgliche Belagerung), written back in 1972, when the press was filled with materials about Baader’s terrorist group Meinhof, was published. The novel describes the devastating social consequences that arise from the need to increase security measures during mass violence. Bell was the first and, perhaps, the most popular West German writer of the young post-war generation in the USSR, whose books became available thanks to the “thaw” of the late 1950s - 1960s. From 1952 to 1973, more than 80 stories, novels and articles by the writer were published in Russian, and his books were published in much larger print runs than in his homeland, Germany. Belle was a frequent visitor to the USSR. In 1974, contrary to the protest of the Soviet authorities, he granted A.I. Solzhenitsyn, who was expelled by the Soviet authorities from the USSR, times

a shelter in his house in Cologne (in the previous period, Belle illegally exported the dissident writer’s manuscripts to the West, where they were published). As a result, Böll's works were banned from publication in the Soviet Union. The ban was lifted only in the mid-1980s. with the beginning of perestroika. In 1981, the novel “What will happen to the boy, or Some business regarding the book part” (Was soll aus dem Jungen bloss werden, oder: Irgend was mit Buchern) was published - memories of his early youth in Cologne. In 1987, the Heinrich Böll Foundation was created in Cologne, a non-governmental organization that works closely with the Green Party (its branches exist in many countries, including Russia). The Foundation supports projects in the field of development of civil society, ecology, and human rights. Böll died on July 16, 1985 in Langenbroich. Also in 1985. The writer’s very first novel is published, “The Soldier’s Inheritance” (Das Vermachtnis), which was written in 1947, but was published for the first time.