Danzig Trilogy

{{citations missing|date=June 2025}}{{Short description|Three novels by Günter Grass (published 1959–1963)}}

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The Danzig Trilogy ({{langx|de|Danziger Trilogie}}) is a series of novels and novellas by German author Günter Grass.{{cite journal |last1=Di Napoli |first1=Thomas |title=In Quest of the Messiah: A Study of the Christ Figure in 'The Danzig Trilogy' of Günter Grass |journal=The Centennial Review |date=1980 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=25-42 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23740371}} The trilogy focuses on the interwar and wartime period in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland).

The three books in the trilogy are:

• The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel), published in 1959
• Cat and Mouse (Katz und Maus), published in 1961
• Dog Years (Hundejahre), published in 1963

John Reddick was the first person to explicitly identify the three books as a trilogy and to refer to it as the Danzig Trilogy.{{cite book |last1=Mews |first1=Siegfried |title=Günter Grass and His Critics: From 'The Tin Drum' to 'Crabwalk' |date=2008 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |pages=92–100 |chapter=Danziger Trilogie / The Danzig Trilogy}}{{cite book |last1=Reddick |first1=John |title=The Danzig Trilogy of Gunter Grass : A Study of the Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, and Dog Years |date=1975 |publisher=Harcourt |isbn=9780151238156}} German publisher Luchterhand re-issued the three novels under the overall heading Danziger Trilogie in 1980. In 1987, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich published the first US edition of the entire trilogy under this name.

The trilogy is sometimes seen as part of a larger pentology that includes the later works Der Butt (1977) and Die Rättin (1986). An alternative interpretation extends the trilogy to a sextet by the addition of Der Butt, Unkenrufe (1992), and Im Krebsgang (2002). Publisher Steidl advertised these six books as Das Danzig-Sextett in 2006.