 lothar-gÃ¼nther buchheim () (february 6, 1918 &ndash; february 22, 2007) was a german author and painter. he is best known for his novel das boot (1973), which became an international bestseller and was adapted in 1981 as an oscar-nominated film. ==early life== buchheim was born in weimar in thuringia, the second son of artist charlotte buchheim. she was unmarried, and he was raised by his mother and her parents. they lived in weimar until 1924, then rochlitz until 1932, and finally chemnitz. he began contributing to newspapers in his teens and put on an exhibition of his drawings in 1933, aged just 15. he travelled to the baltic sea with his brother, and canoed along the danube to the black sea. he spent time in italy after taking his abitur in 1937, where he wrote his first book, tage und nÃ¤chte steigen aus dem strom. eine donaufahrt. ("days and nights rise from the river. a travel on the danube."), published in 1941. he studied art in dresden and munich in 1939, and volunteered for the kriegsmarine in 1940. ==second world war== buchheim was an officer in a propaganda unit of the kriegsmarine in the second world war, writing as a war correspondent about his experiences on minesweepers, destroyers and submarines. he also made drawings and took photographs. as a leutnant zur see in the autumn of 1941, buchheim joined kapitÃ¤nleutnant heinrich lehmann-willenbrock and the crew of  on her seventh patrol in the battle of the atlantic. his orders were to photograph and describe the u-boat in action. from his experiences, he wrote a short story, die eichenlaubfahrt (the oak-leaves patrol) - lehmann-willenbrock had been awarded the knight's cross with oak leaves. buchheim ended the war as an oberleutnant zur see. ==post-war career== after the war, buchheim worked as an artist, art collector, gallery owner, art auctioneer and art publisher. through the 1950s and 1960s, he established an art publishing house, and he wrote books on georges braque, max beckmann, otto mueller and pablo picasso. he collected works by french and german expressionist artists, from groups including [[die brÃ¼cke]
1918_births 2007_deaths German_art_collectors German_writers Knight_Commanders_of_the_Order_of_Merit_of_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany Members_of_the_Bavarian_Maximilian_Order_for_Science_and_Art People_from_Weimar War_correspondents_of_World_War_II