Walter Kempowski

Walter Kempowski (1929–2007) was a German writer. Born in Rostock to a shipowner, he was arrested during a visit there in 1948 and sentenced to 25 years of forced labor by a Soviet military tribunal. After eight years in Bautzen prison, he was amnestied. He later studied education and worked as a teacher at a village school. He became known chiefly for the autobiographical »German Chronicle«, which includes works such as »Tadellöser & Wolff« and »Ein Kapitel für sich«. In his ten-volume »Echolot« project, he combined diaries, letters, photographs, and personal recollections into a polyphonic documentary of German history.