Catalan activist and poet Pere Grau dies in Hamburg at 96

Pere Grau, a Barcelona‑born poet, journalist and long‑time cultural ambassador for Catalonia, died in Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 96. Born in 1930, he fled the Franco regime, emigrating to Germany in 1960 where he worked in commerce but devoted his life to Catalan literature and activism. He published more than 460 articles for El Matí Digital, wrote poetry that won the Englantina d’or at the 1957 Jocs Florals de l’Exili in Mexico, and translated German works into Catalan. Grau was a founding member of the Catalan diaspora association Pont Blau in Hamburg and maintained contact with former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who publicly mourned his death. In 2020 the Institut de Projecció Exterior de la Cultura Catalana recognized his contributions. His passing was noted by the Catalan community as the loss of a “poet of Hamburg” and a steadfast advocate for Catalan sovereignty.