Always a controversial artist and contemporary, he is undoubtedly one of the most influential German-language writers of the 20th century. He is repeatedly regarded, especially abroad, as the most important author of post-war literature in Germany. He influenced Willy Brandt's slogan "Mehr Demokratie wagen" ("Daring more democracy"), major trends in world literature such as the "magical realism" of Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez, as well as the writing of post-colonial author Salman Rushdie.

Grass' outstanding position was confirmed when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1999.

A life's work that serves understanding

From today's perspective, the life's work of the author, who was born in 1927 and died in 2015 and came from one of Germany's former eastern territories, is a kind of burning mirror. "With its help, Germany's development from the war and post-war years to the 21st century can be traced and perhaps even better understood," say the editors of the handbook, literary scholar Prof Dr Michael Scheffel (University of Wuppertal) and Prof Dr Christoph Jürgensen (University of Bamberg).

The handbook is aimed at a broad public and contains around one hundred articles written by around sixty authors from Germany and abroad, including many members of staff at the University of Wuppertal. With the help of these recognised experts, the handbook aims to provide up-to-date, clearly structured access to an extraordinary body of work. At the same time, it aims to open up new perspectives on the author, his individual works and their reception. "And in any case, it aims to contribute to a lively dialogue with the artist and always uncomfortable contemporary Grass," say the editors.

Günter Grass Handbook. Edited by Christoph Jürgensen and Michael Scheffel. De Gruyter publishing house. Berlin 2025, 812 pages, ISBN: 3110755297, 199.95 euros.