Walter Kempowski
Walter Kempowski (1929–2007) was a notable German author and educator whose works reflect the complexities of German history during and after World War II. Born in Rostock into a family of shipping merchants, Kempowski experienced a peaceful childhood characterized by interests in art and music. His early life was disrupted by the war; at sixteen, he was conscripted into the Nazi army, while his father and older brother fought on the front lines. After the war, he endured eight years in a Soviet prison camp, a formative experience that influenced his later writing.
Kempowski began his literary career with "Im Block: Ein Haftbericht," which details his prison experiences, but it initially found little success. His breakthrough came with "Tadellöser und Wolff: Ein bürgerlicher Roman," a semiautobiographical novel that captures the everyday life of a German family during the tumultuous events of the 20th century. This work resonated with readers and was later adapted for radio. Kempowski continued to explore his family's story in subsequent works and became known for his radio plays as well. His writing is praised for its authentic portrayal of wartime experiences and has drawn comparisons to the renowned novelist Thomas Mann. Today, he is remembered as a significant figure in chronicling the nuances of German life during a challenging historical period.
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Walter Kempowski
Writer
- Born: April 29, 1929
- Birthplace: Rostock, Germany
- Died: October 5, 2007
- Place of death: Rotenburg, Germany
Biography
Walter Kempowski was born in 1929 in Rostock, Germany, into a family of shipping merchants. His father was named Karl-Georg Kempowski and his mother was a teacher named Margarethe Collasiu. Not a particularly athletic child, he experienced a placid childhood with interests in art, music and reading.
Like many other German boys during this era, he became a member of the Hitler Youth in 1939, where he learned to march, how to camp, and how to work on a farm. Here he gained much attention for his musical ability and helped to provide entertainment. However, after Germany’s entrance into World War II, his father and older brother left to fight and Kempowski himself was conscripted into the Nazi army as a courier at the age of sixteen. His father was killed in combat.
At the end of the war, Rostock fell to the Soviet Union and Kempowski left for three years only to return to Rostock out of homesickness. Shortly thereafter, he and his brother were arrested as spies by the Russians and spent eight years in a Soviet prison camp. Their mother was similarly arrested and sent to a women’s prison camp. After gaining his release, Kempowski enrolled in the teachers’ college Padagogische Hochschule in Göttingen. In 1960, he married Hildegard Janssen and soon after gained his first teaching position and began writing in earnest.
Kempowski’s first book, Im Block: Ein Haftbericht, which records his years spent in prison, did not sell well—more than likely, it is believed, because people were not yet ready to read about life in German prisons. His next book, a semiautobiographical novel dealing with a family that shares his surname, illustrates German history during the first half of the twentieth century.
Tadellöser und Wolff: Ein bürgerlicher Roman begins in 1939 when the author was ten years old and tells the story of the Kempowski family’s move to a larger apartment. The novel ends with the end of World War II and the Soviet invasion. The story captures the minuteness of everyday family life and the massiveness of conquest and its impact on history. The reading audience was more receptive to Kempowski’s literary style this time; the book became popular and was dramatized for radio.
He continued his Kempowski account with Uns geht’s ja noch gold: Roman einer Familie, which chronicles the time from the end of the war up to his arrest, imprisonment, death of his father and his mother’s attempts to help her family survive. Kempowski is also well-known for his radio plays. “Moin Vaddr läbt,” for example, garnered recognition because it utilizes a form of fake Yiddish. Kempowski has been compared to famous German novelist Thomas Mann. He remains highly regarded for his chronicles of wartime Germany and for his novels’ authentic sentiment.