Stefan Heym, one of Germany's best-known writers, has died. The son of a Jewish businessman, he fled Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power, eventually moving to the United States. Heym took part in the 1944 invasion of Normandy, but after Germany's defeat was thrown out of the military for his communist leanings. With his American wife he settled in East Berlin, where his stance as a "critical Marxist'' clashed with the country's communist rulers but elicited a strong following in West Germany. In 1994, he was elected to unified Germany's parliament, but gave up his seat after a year to protest a rise in lawmakers' pay. He is best known outside Germany for his best-selling 1948 war novel The Crusaders.
Passage, Stefan Heym, 88
Stefan Heym, one of Germany's best-known writers, has died. The son of a Jewish businessman, he fled Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power, eventually moving to the United States. Heym took part in the 1944 invasion of Normandy, but after Germany's defeat was thrown out of the military for his communist leanings. With his American wife he settled in East Berlin, where his stance as a "critical Marxist'' clashed with the country's communist rulers but elicited a strong following in West Germany. In 1994, he was elected to unified Germany's parliament, but gave up his seat after a year to protest a rise in lawmakers' pay. He is best known outside Germany for his best-selling 1948 war novel The Crusaders.
