Nobel-winning author Guenter Grass dies

Guenter Grass, the Nobel-winning German writer, was lauded by Germans for helping to revive their culture in the aftermath of the Second World War and helping to give voice and support to democratic discourse in the post-war nation.

However, Grass, who has died aged 87, provoked the ire of many in 2006 when he revealed in his memoir Skinning The Onion that, while in his mid teens, he had served in the Waffen-SS, the combat arm of Adolf Hitler’s notorious paramilitary organisation.

Matthias Wegner, spokesman for the Steidl publishing house, confirmed that Grass died yesterday morning in a Lubeck hospital.