Born on 21st December 1917 in Cologne
Died on 16th July 1985 in Langenbroich in Eifel
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| 1937 - 1938 | |
Bookseller apprenticeship in Cologne |
| 1939 - 1945 |
National service; soldier in France, the Soviet Union, Romania, Hungary, the Rhineland and also held as an American and British prisoner of war. | |
| 1946 |
Studies German culture in Cologne
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| 1958 | Eduard von der Heydt Prize of the city of Wuppertal | |
| 1959 |
Arts Prize of the region of North Rhine-Westphalia
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| 1961 |
Villa Massimo scholarship in Rome | |
| 1964 |
Guest lecturer of poetics at the University of Frankfurt am Main | |
| 1967 | Georg Büchner Prize | |
| 1969 | President of German PEN | |
| 1971 - 1974 | President of the international PEN association | |
| 1972 | Nobel Prize for Literature | |
| 1974 | Carl von Ossietzky medal | |
| 1982 |
Honorary resident of the city of Cologne. Honorary professor in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia
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| 1983 |
Participates in the blockade of the US military depot in Mutlangen, and makes a speech at the central peace demonstration in Bonn on the 22nd of October |
