conflicts with the Soviet authorities in East Berlin, leading to Schnurre moving to West Berlin two years later. Later life and literary career Schnurre's war experiences had made him uncomfortable with working under superiors, so he quit work as a critic and became a freelance writer for radio stations and print publications in 1950. He remarried in 1952. Schnurre was a founding member of the literary association Gruppe 47 and his short story Das Begräbnis (The funeral) was the first piece of literature read at the group's initial meeting. He became a member of the Federal Republic of Germany's branch of PEN in 1958, but left in 1961 to protest against PEN's silence after the construction of the Berlin Wall, which had separated him from his father. In 1964, he developed severe polyneuritis that left him completely paralysed for more than a year, and his recovery was slow. The costs of his extended hospital stay also led to financial troubles. In 1965, his second wife died of suicide after 13 years of marriage. He remarried a year later; the couple adopted a son in 1974. In 1981, he published his first and only novel, (An accident, A misfortune). Schnurre moved to Felde in the early 1980s, leaving his family behind. During this time, his literary output decreased as Schnurre spent time in natureparticularly watching birdsinstead. He died of heart failure in Kiel on 9 June 1989 and was buried in the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf cemetery in Berlin. He left behind detailed instructions for his funeral, requesting that there be no speech, sermon or music. Instead, he asked for "someone with a good voice" to read the "most beautiful story in the world", ("Unexpected reunion") by Johann Peter Hebel, and that the guests engage in small talk "at the grave, or at least at the cemetery". Themes Schnurre was highly active as an author and published more books than any other German author in the period between 1945 and 1972. His large and diverse body of works has been described as "hard to bring down to a catchy formula" by biographer Katharina Blencke. Despite this diversity, the Second World War consistently emerges as a fundamental thematic complex in Schnurre's works. While Schnurre had wanted to become an author since his childhood, he published little before 1945. The war catalysed his desire to write and heavily influenced the themes of his work. Forgetting