Borchert, Wolfgang (1921–1947)

German dramatist and prose writer. He was wounded during World War II while serving on the Russian front, where he had been sent for making anti-Nazi comments. Draussen vor der Tür/The Outsider (1947) is a surreal play about the chaotic conditions that a German soldier finds when he returns to Germany after walking home from the Russian front.

Prose pieces such as the posthumously published ‘Die traurigen Geranien und andere Geschichten/The Mournful Geraniums and Other Stories’ (1962) display Borchert's great linguistic vitality, while showing his attempts to come to terms with the terrible anguish and guilt he felt. His work is characterized by a mood of post-war hopelessness, and he lost favour as this pessimistic outlook became outmoded.