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Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Böll (1917–1985) was a prominent German writer of the 20th century, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate (1972), member and president of PEN International (the German and the international PEN clubs). He visited Ukraine, including Crimea, as a soldier of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front of World War II (1942–1943); his Crimean experience became one of his heaviest memories and a source of his anti-war stance.

Overview

Heinrich Böll was born on December 21, 1917, in Cologne, into a Catholic family. Already at school he showed his disagreement with the regime (he did not join the Hitler Youth), but in 1939, as a student at the University of Cologne, he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht. He went through World War II from France to the Eastern Front. In 1942 he married Anna-Maria Cech, soon returned to the front, and, via Ukraine (Lviv, Odesa), was deployed to Crimea.

In Crimea, in the autumn of 1943, Böll was on the front line, hiding from enemy fire in a field of dried sunflowers; his letters to his wife from Crimea (dated November 21, 1943) have been preserved, containing a sharp condemnation of the war. He was fortunate to leave Crimea alive, to be sent to the Western Front, and to be taken into American captivity. After the war he became one of the most famous German men of letters, consistently spoke the truth, condemned the repressions against Mustafa Dzhemilev, and gave shelter to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who also went through the war — from the opposite side of the front.

In Böll's works Crimea is devoid of romanticism: it is "leaden clouds, a black-blue sky, the cruel Black Sea," a battlefield and the fear of death. An article in the "Crimea in Foreign Literature" column of the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia" (author Valeriy Verkhovsky, 2017, No. 50) places Böll among a series of front-line writers (Saint-Exupéry, Gras, Solzhenitsyn, Hemingway, Vonnegut) who returned from the war.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Biography: 1917, Cologne, Catholic family; student at the University of Cologne; from 1939 — a soldier of the Wehrmacht; 1942 — marriage to Anna-Maria Cech; American captivity; after the war — a statistical clerk and writer.
  • Nobel Prize in Literature: laureate of 1972; president of the German and international PEN clubs.
  • Crimean Front (1943): stay in Crimea in autumn 1943 in a sunflower field under fire; letters to his wife from Crimea (21.11.1943) condemning the war; "Crimea had long since been encircled…".
  • Anti-war stance: "war is vile, merciless and inhumane"; considered peace the only true victory; "in time flowers will grow on the battlefield, only the dead can never be brought back."
  • Civic stance: condemned the repressions against Mustafa Dzhemilev; hosted Alexander Solzhenitsyn at his home (in transit from the USSR to the USA).
  • "Silent dissenter": avoided the Hitler Youth; later said of the Germans: "We Germans are an obedient people" — he himself was not obedient, but had no choice regarding conscription.

Controversies and Open Questions

  • The article presents Böll's Crimea exclusively through the prism of war (Eastern Front, 1943); there are no artistic descriptions of a peaceful Crimean landscape in his texts mentioned by the source. This contrasts with the romanticized image of Crimea in other authors of the same column (see Jules Verne and Crimea).
  • Crimea in Foreign Literature: To Return from Crimea Alive — an article by Valeriy Verkhovsky in the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia" (2017, No. 50), the main primary source about Böll and his Crimean front-line experience.
  • Jules Verne and Crimea — another article in the "Crimea in Foreign Literature" column about the depiction of Crimea in foreign literature.
  • Beryl Bainbridge — an article in the same column about the British writer and the novel "Master Georgie" (Crimean War).
  • Brian Garfield — an article in the same column about the American writer and the novel "Kolchak's Gold" with a Crimean plot.
  • Jasper Fforde — an article in the same column about the Welsh fantasy writer and the novel "The Eyre Affair" (2001).
  • George Fraser — an article in the same column about the Scottish writer and the series about Harry Flashman (Crimean War, escape from captivity).
  • Harold Lamb — an article in the same column about the American writer and the "Cossack cycle" about the Cossack Klit (Crimean Khanate, influence on Robert E. Howard).
  • Crimean (Eastern) War 1853–1856 in the Kherson region — a historical period artistically depicted in other works of the same column.
  • Andriy Shchekun — the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia," which published the article about Böll.
  • Colleen McCullough — an article in the same column about the Australian writer and the depiction of Mithridates/Bosporus/Panticapaeum in "The Masters of Rome."
  • Louis Boussenard — an article in the same column about the French novelist and the novel "The Zouaves of the Malakhov Mound" about the Crimean War.
  • Mark Twain — an article in the same column about the American writer who visited Crimea in 1867 and described his impressions in the book "The Innocents Abroad" (1869 bestseller).