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Guenter Grass museum to open in Gdansk

Other News Materials 11 February 2008 21:45 (UTC +04:00)

( dpa )- German Nobel Literature Laureate, Guenter Grass, who was born in the Polish city of Gdansk, is to have a museum there dedicated to him, a spokeswoman for the municipal authority confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Monday.

The daily Gazeta Wyborcza had earlier reported the dedication.

The spokeswoman, Anna Czekanowicz, said: "Grass was born in Gdansk, wrote about Gdansk and gifted Gdansk his works. So his museum and a permanent exhibition of his works should be here."

The author was very enthusiastic about the idea, she added.

Gdansk already has 120 lithographies, 51 graphics and six sculptures by Grass. The collection is to be shown in a permanent exhibition in the historic old part of the city by early 2009 at the latest.

There are also plans to rebuild the house belonging to the painter Daniel Chodowiecki (1726-1801) which was destroyed during World War II and to set up an artists' centre with a meeting place. Part of this establishment would be dedicated to Grass.

Gdansk municipal authorities are to work closely with the German cities of Luebeck and Bremen on the project.

Grass celebrated his 80th birthday last October in Gdansk. Although the writer's admission that he had served in the Waffen SS as a teenager at the end of the war had prompted heated debate in Poland, it did not destroy his good relations with his birthplace.

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