Günter Eich

Günter Eich was born on February 1, 1907 in Lebus an der Oder. In his early childhood, the family moved often. After graduating from high school, Eich studied Sinology in Berlin. In 1927 Eich began publishing his first poems and texts, some under a pseudonym. In 1932 he abandoned his studies and began a career as a freelance writer for a friend’s newspaper. In 1933 he began writing radio plays for various German radio stations. In 1939 he was drafted into the Luftwaffe as a driver and radio operator. Almost all his manuscripts were lost in an air raid on Berlin in 1943. After the war he continued to publish poetry, prose, screenplays, but above all radio plays. In 1947 he became a member of the Gruppe 47, whose first prize he won in 1950. He married Ilse Aichinger in 1953. His first collection of radio plays was published by Suhrkamp. In the 1960s, Eich, by now a renowned and award-winning author of radio plays, went on several reading tours with subsequent stays in the Middle East, Asia and parts of North America, among other places. In 1963 he moved to Salzburg. In 1968 he received the Schiller Memorial Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg. In 1967, he took part in the last meeting of the Gruppe 47. Eich died in Salzburg on December 20, 1972 after a long illness.