Literature Writer Günter Grass' estate is up for sale
The former home of Nobel Prize winner for literature Günter Grass in Behlendorf in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany is up for sale. A real estate agency in Lübeck is offering the property for sale on the Internet for 1.6 million euros.
13.12.2025, 06:02
SDA
Grass lived in the small village around 50 kilometers east of Hamburg from 1986 until his death in 2015. Since the mid-1990s, his office and archive with his pictorial works have been located in what is now the Günter Grass House in Lübeck's old town.
The estate agency writes in its advertisement that Grass found inspiration and peace in Behlendorf. He wrote, painted and observed nature there. "In his texts, he describes the garden, the orchard and the view of the canal - places that have retained their special atmosphere to this day. This property is therefore not just a home, but a piece of living cultural history."
Use as a cultural meeting place had failed
The house has eleven rooms on 354 square meters and was modernized in 1968/87. It has an absolutely unique location. The property, on which there is also a second building intended as a guest house and studio, is said to be 21,611 square meters in size.
According to the Günter and Ute Grass Foundation, the sale of the property in Behlendorf does not contradict the joint will of the Nobel Prize winner and his wife. "It stipulated that up to five years after the death of the couple's last deceased, a use as a cultural meeting place should be sought," said Hilke Ohsoling, managing director of the foundation. Unfortunately, efforts to this end had remained unsuccessful until the end.
Grass died in 2015, his wife in April 2021, and the Lübeck city council decided against buying the property in Behlendorf. However, the Günter Grass House in Lübeck will be enhanced by the Nobel Prize winner's library of 5,500 volumes and around 800 items from his estate.
From Gdansk via Düsseldorf to the north
The author, who was born in Gdansk in 1927 and initially studied sculpture and graphic design in Düsseldorf after 1945, wrote novels, short stories, poems and plays. His best-known works include his debut novel "Die Blechtrommel", "Das Treffen in Telgte", "Die Rättin", "Der Butt", the novella "Im Krebsgang" and his autobiographical book "Beim Häuten der Zwiebel", in which he revealed his membership of the Waffen-SS, among other things.
His poem "What must be said", in which he criticized the Israeli government's nuclear policy, also caused quite a stir - and earned him accusations of anti-Semitism. Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.
