1917- 1937: Between two wars - childhood and adolescence

1917
Heinrich Böll, the sixth child of Viktor Böll, master carpenter and woodcarver, and his wife Maria, is born in Cologne on 21 December, when wartime hunger is at its worst.

1921
The family moves from the southern part of the old city to the more outlying district of Raderberg.  Heinrich attends elementary school in Köln-Raderthal.

1924 - 1928
He enters the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gymnasium, a classical grammar school in Cologne.

1928
The great depression leads to the collapse of the small bank for craftsmen in which Viktor Böll has invested.  The Bölls have to sell their house in Raderberg and move back to the south city district of Cologne. In the years that follow they are not much better off then the rest of the three million unemployed.  Visits to pawnbrokers, bailiffs on the doorstep and the seizure of household goods become part of everyday life.

1933 - 1936
On January 30, 1933 Hitler is appointed Chancellor.  The Nazi terror spreads in Cologne, too.  The Böll family discusses political events frequently and openly, on Hitler's election Heinrich's mother comments, "This means war!" Dated manuscripts in Böll's literary remains, short stories and poems, show that he started writing in 1936.

1937
Heinrich obtains his school-leaving certificate and begins an apprenticeship with the bookseller Math. Lemperz in Bonn, but leaves soon afterwards.