Should Günter Grass give his Nobel prize back?

Question

Has he surpressed his past only to reveal details at an opportune moment? Should he be punished for an act that he committed aged 17? Or is this more about how he has manipulated his past to gain publicity?

Has he surpressed his past only to reveal details at an opportune moment? Should he be punished for an act that he committed aged 17? Or is this more about how he has manipulated his past to gain publicity?

Update - he was drafted into the SS during the final months of WWII, which he revealed today

To clarify - I'm not asking if he should give it back because he was drafted, but because he has lied about his past. Surely not "asinine", Heinze M - you've just not grapsed what the debate is.

Answer 1

This is a difficult question as Gunter Grass became the voice of many post-war Germans and described moral issues in his novels. He too would have been morally divided at the time:

"One forgets easily, in what a skillful and modern way the Hitler Youth and Jungvolk were raised, as a preliminary level," he said, referring to the Nazi youth organization and its subdivision for younger boys. "Hitler's slogan that "youth must be led by youth' was tremendously effective."

However, his serving in the Waffen SS and supressing part of his history until now does undermine his moral authority. To what extent remains an issue for debate, but this denouement is novellistic in itself - when the omniscient narrator is proven to be unreliable all along.

Answer 2

In response to the answer about the Waffen SS being just ordinary front line troops, this is not the case. The Waffen ss men were on the whole fanatically dedicated to the Nazi course and to Hitler. It was perfectly possible for Grass to have been an ordinary Wehrmacht soldier or to have joined one of the other services.

Having said that the young people of his generation were a product of a country that had been in the hands of fanatics for 12 years. I don't know what his personal and family circumstances were but surely he was no different from thousands of his fellow countrymen, caught up in a life or death struggle, in a country which for most of their formative years had been run by fanatical ideologues.

If he tells the truth now, well better late than never, it is still a brave thing to do. Certainly with 60 years elapsed the emotional climate is a far healthier one in which to make such revelations. Who are we to judge? Lets judge him on his subsequent life and work, which has already won him a Nobel Prize he should surely keep.

Answer 3

Let us say you do not mean to be serious about this question, let us say you just mean to put a concept over to us, the idea of a man who has lied to find its way up and gain advantageous publicity for himself. If this is so, I would say it is not so wise to lie and that the man that should have acted so was a liar and that, therefore, he should not have gained any recognition whatsoever.

About Günter Grass I must say I have never read anything by him, to be honest-nor am I well up in the sort of things he might be into as a writer-but that it is worth considering the possibility to grant a life dedicated to study and publishing the benefit of doubt. I do not know of any well known criminal to have gained recognition for anything but their crimes. Moreover, you cannot be clear in what you say or write if you have something to hide, for you sort of need peace of mind to be able to concentrate and focus on what really matters. He who lies cannot see things clearly, is just a bad writer.

Answer 4

if you ask guenter grass to give back his nobel prize you might as well ask ratzi to hand back his papacy. joining the waffen-ss was a step for a 17 year old that was practically impossible to avoid for a 17 year old at that time, he and his family would have got into a lot of trouble if he hadn't done that. also, there is a lot of misinformation floating around about the nature of this organisation. the waffen ss were not the guys who ran the concentration camps, they were run buy the regular ss. the waffen-ss were part of the fighting troops in the war. let the man have his nobel prize, for starters i doubt that he joined the waffen-ss with any degree of enthusiasm, and even if he did it is very obvious that he has learned a lot since. also, he could have kept it secret for the rest of his life and thus avoided controversy but instead he came clear about it and let people judge him, that in itself i think is a clear sign that he regrets that action and fully deserves all the accolades he has got since the war.

Answer 5

Even the question is asinine.
He was a 17 year old kid inducted into the Waffen SS at the very end of the war.
He was in favor of his country, a patriot.
If he should be punished for that (mostly being one person on the losing side?) than everyone who fought or was involved in the Vietnam war should be stripped of anything they ever received in appreciation for anything.
As the religious nuts would say 'Let him who is without sin, cast the first...'

Answer 6

The guy wasn't a volunteer. He was drafted. No, he didn't do the noble thing and oppose the Nazis even unto death by offering himself for martyrdom or, as the late Chancellor Wili Brandt did, by joining the Allis to fight them. So he's not a hero. Neither am I.
But I don't see how he exploited his past by not talking about it. Everything he has written has been about Germany's willing complicity in the Nazi era. He hasn't tried to excuse that and he has not tried to excuse himself.

Answer 7

No, he should not. Gossip about a Nazi past is just that. He served as an ordinary soldier on the Eastern Front during World War II.

Answer 8

In what way does any past link with the Nazi party, proven or otherwise affect the quality of his writing - he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, not the Nobel Peace Prize....

Answer 9

What's worrying is the fact he didn't reveal this to anyone. Had he been up front, the hostility would have been intense but short-lived. As it is, he has devalued his Nobel status by his deception.

Answer 10

Just signed in and your question caught my eye.I have read quite a few of his books but have not heard any scandal about him.What has he done.