Günter Grass was born in the city of Danzig (now Gdańsk). His life was marked by the war, American captivity, and work in mines. But a drive for education brought him in 1948 to the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts, and since 1953 he has attended the Institute of Fine Arts in Berlin. Grass works in graphics and sculpture. His literary debut came only in 1955. In the following years, the writer publishes poems and “absurd plays.” Sudden loud fame reached him in 1959 after the publication of his novel “The Tin Drum.” Then Grass writes the novella “Cats and Mice” (1961) and the novel “Dog Years” (1963), which together make up the so-called Danzig trilogy. After that came “Under Local Anesthesia” (1969), “From the Diary of a Snail” (1972), “The Flounder” (1977), “Meeting at Telgte” (1979), and “The Birth of an Orphan from a Head” (1980). Günter Grass became a very popular writer thanks to his fondness for the grotesque, parody, and parable-like storytelling. His work resonates with modern times. In 1999, G. Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.