Ingeborg Bachmann und Max Frisch »Wir haben es nicht gut gemacht.«

In the organizer's words:

One of the most spectacular exchanges of letters in literary historyReading with Burghart Klaußner and Friederike Wagner - in a version by Susanne Meister - Schauspielhaus, Kleines Haus - Schauspiel

Spring 1958: Ingeborg Bachmann - celebrated poet, winner of the Gruppe 47 prize and cover star of "Der Spiegel" - is about to broadcast her radio play "Der gute Gott von Manhattan". Max Frisch - a successful novelist and playwright who receives the Büchner Prize in the same year - is busy with productions of "Biedermann und die Brandstifter" at this time. He writes to the "young poet" to tell her how enthusiastic he is about her radio play. Bachmann's reply in June 1958 marked the beginning of a correspondence that - from the time they met until long after their separation - bears witness to the life, love and suffering of one of the most famous couples in German-language literature in around 300 surviving documents. Closeness and distance, admiration and rivalry, jealousy, impulses to flee and fear of loss, but also the difficulties of working in a shared apartment and the tension between the writer's existence and togetherness - the themes of the autobiographical testimonies are timeless. This love left traces in Bachmann and Frisch's books, some of which can only be shed light on through their correspondence. The letters show the close connection between life and work, they are intimate messages and at the same time world literature.