His most famous work is the drama Draußen vor der Tür (The Man Outside), which he wrote soon after the end of World War II.
Upon passing his acting examination on 21 March 1941, he began working for the travelling repertory theatre company Landesbühne Ost-Hannover based in Lüneburg.
At his trial, the military prosecutor called for the death penalty, but the court believed Borchert's version, and he was pronounced not guilty.
He was transferred to a transit camp in Koblenz, but in the dormitory on the evening of 30 November 1943 he retold parodies of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
During their transportation to a prisoner of war camp, Borchert and others jumped off the lorry and escaped, and then he walked home to Hamburg (a distance of around 370 miles).
He wrote short prose and published a collection of poems Laterne, Nacht und Sterne (Lantern, Night and Stars) in December 1946.
Later in 1947 Borchert entered a hepatic sanitorium in the Swiss city of Basel, where he continued with short stories and wrote his manifesto against war Dann gibt es nur eins!
Readers sensed in his poems the influence of famous poets, such as Shakespeare, Stefan George and Rainer Maria Rilke.
Rilke was his role model, to the extent that he signed a work "Wolff Maria Borchert" to express his respect for him.
[3] For instance, in one of his letters to Aline Bussmann he was not interested in hearing her opinion in what he wrote but rather he asked her whether the piece pleased her or not!
Even though Wolfgang's work was widely spread, he was not satisfied with his work and thought it was more of a self-expression need that he needed to let out: "Aber ich bin seit einiger Zeit darüber, meine Gedichte für etwas Wichtiges anzusehen, das nicht verloren gehen dürfte.
Wenn ich aber dennoch immer welche schreibe, die oft garnichts taugen, dann nur, um sie loszuwerden – sonst nichts.
Therefore, what survived from his poems were mostly included in his letters to Aline Bussmann, Ruth Hager, Carl Albert Lange and Hugo Seiker.
Most of what he creates is not memorable-character based, meaning, he describes people and things without the labels placed by the society or the nation.
The basic language he used contributed to delivering the desired message of suffering the people, and he, experienced during the war time.
His play Draußen vor der Tür, which was “a tragedy of a returning soldier”, had a hopelessly nihilistic theme.
Instead, the reader finds Borchert's stories divided into sections of despair, guilt, solitariness and a lack of faith and willingness.
That is just it…” The character is missing here but the message he wanted to send is clear and deliverable because there are many people who had their different “Clock” after World War II and can relate to his situation.
For example, the “Laterne, Nacht und Sterne“ written by Borchert is very similar to Whitman's “youth, old age, and night”.
They share the same images of insomnia with darkness that are mixed with cold, hunger and the long time outside standings[7] Later in Borchert's life, his work extended beyond the national borders as it was translated to other languages, especially English.
[8] The translation of Borchert's work opened up the opportunity for foreigners to further study the trauma literature which is greatly presented in his poems and short stories.