Group 47

Group 47 was a postwar German literary circle that met from 1947 to 1967 to read and criticize new writing. Its informal meetings helped shape West German literature and literary debate.

Hans Werner Richter: Hans Werner Richter was a German writer and editor who founded and led Group 47. He organized the meetings and established their practice of public readings followed by blunt criticism.
Zero Hour: Zero Hour is the postwar idea that Germany began anew after its defeat in 1945. The circle’s early members debated whether German literature could begin again after Nazism.
Günter Grass: Günter Grass was a German novelist, poet, and playwright whose novel The Tin Drum appeared in 1959. Group 47 helped bring his writing to prominence before his international breakthrough.
West German literature: West German literature is writing produced in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 until reunification in 1990. Group 47 helped shape the institutions and public profile of literature in the Federal Republic.
East German literature: East German literature is writing produced in the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1990. Its institutions and political conditions contrasted with the West German circle’s informal, member-led structure.
Group 47 meetings: The Group 47 meetings were gatherings where invited writers read unpublished work and received criticism from fellow participants. These gatherings were the circle’s central institution and its route to literary recognition.
Der Ruf: Der Ruf was a German literary and political journal published after the Second World War. Hans Werner Richter and Alfred Andersch’s work on the journal preceded the founding of Group 47.
Heinrich Böll: Heinrich Böll was a German novelist and short-story writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972. His postwar fiction and public engagement made him one of the circle’s best-known members.
German Group 47 Prize: The German Group 47 Prize was a literary award associated with the group’s member-selected recognition of writers. Its award history shows how the circle’s critical authority became a form of literary patronage.
Gruppe 61: Gruppe 61 was a West German writers’ association founded in 1961 to address industrial labor and society. Its focused social program differed from Group 47’s broad literary forum.

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