Leading German novelist and political activist Stefan Heym died of heart failure today while on a lecture tour in Israel, the director of the centre where Heym was lecturing said.
Stefan Heym died of heart failure at 2.30 (12.30 Irish time) in the afternoon, Michael Shiloh, director of the Mishkenot Sha'anmanin centre, told reporters.
The 88-year-old Heym was one of Germany's best-loved novelists but was also a controversial political dissident.
He had been lecturing in Israel on 19th century German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, and his career in some ways mirrored that of Heine, who was often ostracised for his religion.
Heym was critical of German unification in 1990, expressing this in books such as Auf Sand gebaut (Built on Sand).
In recent years, Heym, who fought as a US soldier in World War Two against the Nazis, was linked to the reform communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) in eastern Berlin.
Mr Gregor Gysi, a leading member of the PDS, hailed Heym's work in resisting the Nazis and in fighting efforts to ostracise him in the former East Germany.
"He was a great writer and a fantastic person. I have lost a friend," Gysi said in a statement.
Born Helmut Flieg on April 10, 1913 in Chemnitz, Heym was the son of a Jewish businessman whose father committed suicide in 1935 and who lost most of his family in the Auschwitz death camp.
One of his last major public actions was to take part in a demonstration against the Afghanistan war in October.