Heinrich Böll was born December 21, 1917, in Cologne, Germany. The sixth child of Maria and Viktor Böll, Böll's earliest memories were of Germany's defeated troops returning from the war and the economic instability that Germany experienced following the war. His father, a self-employed furniture maker, lost his business in 1923 when Germany's astronomical rates of inflation rendered its currency virtually worthless, and following the stock market crash of 1929, he was unable to keep up with his loan repayments and lost the family house. Böll would cite these events, along with the rise of Adolph Hitler's Nazi movement during this same time period, as having a profound impact on his writing throughout his career.

Böll was never more than an average student in school. However, his decision to resist joining Hitler's youth movement gave him ample time to read...