Buchheim, Lothar-Gunther

▪ 2008

 German art collector and author

born Feb. 6, 1918 , Weimar, Ger.

died Feb. 22, 2007, Starnberg, Ger.

scrutinized the difficult lives of a German U-boat crew in his autobiographical novel Das Boot (1973; The Boat, 1974), which he based on his own World War II service on the German submarine U-96. Buchheim published collections of photographs as well as several fiction and nonfiction works about his wartime experience, but it was Das Boot that brought him worldwide fame, especially after it was made into a film in 1981. From the 1950s Buchheim also amassed an impressive art collection, primarily of works by Die Brücke artists and other German Expressionists but also including ethnographic and folk art from around the world. In 2001 he opened the Buchheim Museum in Bernried, Ger., to house his extensive collection.

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