Günter Grass (1927-2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor. He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum, which was published in 1959 and became the first part of his Danzig Trilogy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. Grass was a vocal critic of the German government and its policies, and his works often explored the moral and ethical issues of German history. He was also a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin. Grass was a major figure in post-war German literature and his works have been translated into more than 40 languages.