Walser, Martin

Born Mar. 24, 1927, in Wasserburg. German writer, Federal Republic of Germany.

Walser’s literary activity began with the collection Airplane Over the House (1955). The novel Marriages in Philippsburg (1957) depicts the decay of bourgeois morality. Walser’s novel Half Time (1960) is permeated with criticism of West German reality. In the plays The Oak and the Angora Rabbits (1962-63) and Mr. Krott at a Supernatural Magnitude (1964) capitalist society is satirized. The play The Black Swan (1964) relates the crimes committed by the Nazis. The hero of the novel The Unicorn (1966) travels around West Germany and finds himself lonely everywhere. As a journalist, Walser has come out against American aggression in Vietnam. He is a member of “Group 47.”