Du bist mein zweites Ich
('You are my second me')
Correspondence between
Eva and Erwin Strittmatter
'I thank you, I thank you, and will gladly reward you with everything that I am and I can still become through you. You are my second me.' – Erwin Strittmatter to his later wife Eva on 15 June 1952.
Eva and Erwin Strittmatter met in February 1952. The 22-year-old Eva, who worked for the East German writers' association Schriftstellerverband, lived in Berlin, the 40-year-old freelance writer in Spremberg, so they wrote letters to each other. The correspondence between these two, who would go on to marry and become one of the GDR's most famous writing couples, from the 1950s illustrates how each of them sought to make their ideals come true in the other, tells of family and artistic crises, of encounters with colleagues, of life in the GDR, and of their creative struggles. They were united by literature, and above all, by a very strong love, especially at the beginning, and a mutual understanding particularly also on the literary level that made both of them stay with each other for the rest of their lives.
Eva Strittmatter (1930–2011) was a poet and bestseller author who, in a very sensitive language, described the shades and colours of everyday life in the most poetic way. Erwin Strittmatter (1912–1994) was celebrated for his anecdotal novels about ordinary people, such as the trilogies Der Laden and Wundertäter. Corinna Harfouch and Sylvester Groth will be reading from the correspondence of their early years together.
Corinna Harfouch is one of Germany's best-known film, TV and theatre character actresses. Memorably and masterfully, she portrays the extremes of human existence. Time and again, her performances also always walk the tightrope across life's abysses. She has received numerous awards for her theatre work, including the Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring prize in 1997. The multi-award-winning actress has won the Adolf-Grimme prize, for example, the Bavarian and the German film prize awards, and also the Goldene Kamera film and television award in the category best German actress.
Sylvester Groth is one of the most renowned character actors of the German-speaking countries. His characters are profound, his performances intense. He has stood on all of the great stages, and has worked with renowned directors such as Peter Zadek, Klaus-Michael Gruber and Frank Castorf. His most recent film work includes the series Dark, Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89. In the cinema, he has appeared in the literary adaptations The Weekend and Naked Among Wolves, for example. He played Joseph Goebbels in Dani Levy's My Führer, as well as in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, winning a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in the latter. He has also received various other awards such as an Adolf-Grimme-Preis television award and the prestigious Goldene Kamera film and television award.
© By courtesy of Aufbau Verlag, Berlin
