German writer.
In 1938 he was advertising manager of the Academic Publishing Society Athenaion in Potsdam, in the following year propagandist for Ullstein Verlag in Berlin, and finally in the “Frankfurter Zeitung”. From 1940 Schirmbeck was a soldier. Shortly before the war, he deserted – an experience that he processed in the story “The Flight” emphatically. In 1945 he was in U.S. captivity, from which he was released in September 1945.
From 1946 to 1950 he was editor of the cultural pages of the ” Swabian newspaper “in Leutkirch im Allgäu, while employees of the ” Badische Zeitung ” in Freiburg. In 1950 he joined as head of advertising for the “German newspaper and business magazine” in Stuttgart, he was head of advertising for the “Frankfurter Illustrated”. Since 1952 Schirmbeck was a freelance writer and radio writer, he has written more than 250 broadcast contributions from various fields of science.
The essays and stories of Henry Schirmbeck combine literary, ethical and scientific issues alike. His major work, “If thine eye offend thee” appeared in 1957 and was primarily in the U.S. hailed as the most sophisticated literary novel German language since Thomas Mann’s “Magic Mountain”.
In addition to his literary activities Schirmbeck was active in politics: He dedicated himself in the fifties against the rearmament of the Federal Republic, and later against the nuclear armament, nuclear power plants and in the eighties against the NATO Double-Track Decision.
Heinrich Schirmbeck had since 1959 a member of the PEN Centre of the Federal Republic of Germany , since 1962 the German Academy for Language and Literature in Darmstadt since 1964 and the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz . From 1969 he was the Academic Council of the Humboldt Society on.
He has received several awards including the Goethe Medal in 1995.
He died 4 July 2005 in Darmstadt.

Link to German Wikipedia