Siegfried Lenz

Siegfried Lenz  was a German writer of novels, short storiesand essays, as well as dramas for radio and the theatre. In 2000 he received the Goethe Prize on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth. Siegfried Lenz was born  on17 March 1926 in in Lyck, East Prussia (now E?k, Poland), the son of a customs officer. After graduating in 1943, he was drafted into the Kriegsmarine. According to documents released in June 2007, he may have joined the Nazi Party at the age of 18 on 20 April 1944 along with several other German authors and personalities, such as Dieter Hildebrandt and Martin Walser. In 1988 Lenz was awarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, a prize given annually at the Frankfurt Book Fair.