Heinz G. Konsalik
Heinz G. Konsalik born in Cologne in 1921, studied theatre, journalism and the history of literature, aiming at being a dramaturge. Drafted at the beginning of World War II. Released from American captivity, he started writing freelance for the feature pages of a Cologne newspaper. Soon he belonged to those post-war-authors whose target was to describe the horrors of war forcefully and realistically for the following generation. With The Doctor from Stalingrad in 1956, which has since become a classic of World War II literature, Konsalik became an overnight success. Following this, he produced one bestseller after the other, 155 in all. In 1999, at his Salzburg home, he suffered a deadly stroke. Today, many years after his death, Konsalik is, both nationally and internationally, the most widely read post-war German language author. So far the total number of his books published is more than 88 million. His works have been translated into 46 languages.