The German author Martin Walser was born in Wasserburg am Bodensee on Lake Constance where his father owned a restaurant. Matin fought in the Second World War, was captured by the Americans and spent some time in a prisoner of war camp. He completed his abitur in 1946 and went on to read literature and philosophy at Regensburg and Tübingen. He wrote his doctoral thesis in 1951 about Franz Kafka. Between 1949 and 1957, he worked as an editor, reporter and playwright for Süddeutscher Rundfunk until he settled with his family on the shores of Lake Constance and became a full-time author.