Hans Werner Richter was born in Bansin auf Usedom on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on November 12, 1908 to a fishing family. The details of the author’s early life are sparse, but in 1924 at age sixteen he began a three-year apprenticeship with a bookseller in Swinemünde, then another German city on the Baltic Sea. After World War II, the city was included in territorial concessions to Poland and renamed Świnoujście. In 1928, Richter began working as a bookseller in Berlin. He witnessed firsthand the chaotic and often violent political struggles between far-right parties such as the National Socialists (Nazis), and various leftist groups such as the Social Democrats (SPD) and the German Communist Party (KPD), the latter of which he j…
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Citation: Horton, Aaron. "Hans Werner Richter". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 October 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13414, accessed 24 November 2024.]
