Martin Walser

Martin Johannes Walser (German: [ˈmaʁ.tiːn ˈvalˌzɐ] ; 24 March 1927 – 26 July 2023) was a German writer, especially known as a novelist. He began his career as journalist for Süddeutscher Rundfunk, where he wrote and directed audio plays. He was part of Group 47 from 1953.

His first novel, Ehen in Philippsburg (Marriage in Philippsburg), a satirical portrait of postwar society, became a success in 1957. He then turned to freelance writing. He published a trilogy of novels around Anselm Kristlein, beginning with Halbzeit in 1960, Das Einhorn (The Unicorn) in 1966 and ending with Der Sturz (The Fall) in 1973. Most of his major works were translated into English, such as the 1978 novella Ein fliehendes Pferd, successful with both readers and critics, as Runaway Horse when it first appeared. He also wrote plays (Die Zimmerschlacht), screen plays, story collections and essays. Several of his books were adapted to the screen, Runaway Horse both in 1986 and 2007.

Walser received many awards including the Georg Büchner Prize in 1981 and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1998. He caused controversy when he criticised in his acceptance speech for the Peace Prize the "monumentalization of shame" that risks to turn remembrance of the Holocaust into a "lip service" ritual, and again in 2002 when his portrait of literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki in his 2002 novel Tod eines Kritikers was regarded as anti-Semitic.

Walser is regarded, along with Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and Siegfried Lenz, as one of Germany's most influential postwar authors.