ABSTRACT
Andersch belonged to the generation of Böll, Schnurre and Bender, marked by involvement in a war which challenged their humanitarian instincts, but he can also be linked to the slightly older Koeppen, Eich, Huchel, as, like they, he began writing well before Germany’s defeat. Andersch’s early life was further complicated by his upbringing in a conservative household (his father was a businessman, soldier and supporter of Ludendorff) and schooling (one of his teachers was the father of Heinrich Himmler and his Greek class forms the substance of Der Vater eines Mörders (1980)). Having obtained a responsible position in the communist youth organization, Andersch was briefly incarcerated in Dachau after the Nazi seizure of power, avoided further political involvement on his release, and did various odd jobs until his call-up in 1943. On 6 June 1944 he deserted on the Italian front, a decision which he later endowed with crucial political and existential significance and made the turning-point of his autobiographical work Die Kirschen der Freiheit (1952), the original version of which, devoid of existentialist overtones, appeared in 1950 under the title Flucht in Etrurien and was re-published in 1981. Returning from POW camp in the USA, he founded and edited with Hans Werner Richter Der Ruf (1946-7) until the threat of suppression by the American occupation authorities made its continuation under their editorship impossible, then worked for radio, developing new broadcasting forms such as the feature and the radio essay and opening the medium to younger writers. He performed a similar role as editor of the bimonthly Texte und Zeichen (1955-7). Settling in Ticino in 1958, he became a Swiss citizen in 1972.
