Bergengruen, Werner, 1892-1964

Werner Bergengruen (September 16, 1892 – September 4, 1964) was a Baltic German novelist and poet. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Bergengruen was born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, which at that time belonged to the Russian Empire. After growing up in Lübeck and attending the Katharineum, he started studying theology in Marburg in 1911. He later changed to studying Germanistics and art history, but failed to graduate; he then moved to Munich. He served as a lieutenant during World War I and joined the Baltische Landeswehr in 1919 to fight against the Bolsheviks.

On 4 October 1919, he married Charlotte Hensel (1896–1990), a descendant of the composer Fanny Mendelssohn, and the daughter of the mathematician Kurt Hensel. From the marriage there were four children, Olaf, Luise, Maria and Alexander.

Bergengruen started writing novels and short stories in 1923 and decided to become a full-time writer in 1927. In 1942, after his house in Munich was destroyed by bombs, Bergengruen moved to Achenkirch. After World War II, he lived in Switzerland, Rome, and finally Baden-Baden, where he died in 1964.