Martin Walser's works are rooted in specific locations and traditions that reflect conditions in the larger community of contemporary Germany. A deep sense of class origin pervades his work. He believes that Germany has emerged as a society with materialistic rather than democratic principles, and his dramas are contributions to the discussion of Germany's social and political development. Among the dramatists confronted with the schism between the theater of the absurd and Bertolt Brecht's epic theater, Walser was the first to strive for a dramatic form unique to the new Germany.

Walser was born on 24 March 1927 in Wasserburg, an idyllic village on the shores of Lake Constance, the second of three sons of Martin Walser, an innkeeper, and Augusta Walser (née Schmid). His parents also operated a small coal business, which eventually became the responsibility of the two older boys. The father, who had failed at...