The Nobel prizewinning German novelist Günter Grass, who has died aged 87, is most famous for his novel The Tin Drum, about the second world war. But in 2012 he also published a controversial poem about Israel, ‘What must be said’. In the poem he acknowledges the controversy over his belated revelation, in 2006, that he was member of the Waffen SS as a teenager, in saying: “Why only now, grown old, / and with what ink remains, do I say: / Israel's atomic power endangers / an already fragile world peace? / Because what must be said / may be too late tomorrow”.

In the poem he also says: “But why have I kept silent till now? / Because I thought my own origins, / tarnished by a stain that can never be removed, / meant I could not expect Israel, a land / to which I am, and always will be, attached, / to accept this open declaration of the truth.” In response, Israel declared him persona non grata.

His publisher, Gerhard Steidl, said that he had learned late on Sunday that Grass had been taken to hospital after falling seriously ill very quickly. He died on Monday. Steidl said he drank his final schnapps with Grass eight days ago while they were working together on his most recent book, which he described as a “literary experiment” fusing poetry with prose. It is scheduled to be published in the summer.