Mit Respekt und Vergnügen
(''With respect and pleasure'')
Brigitte Reimann met Hermann Henselmann, one of the GDR's most renowned and quarrelsome architects, in the course of the research for her novel Franziska Linkerhand. A friendship evolved that was based on mutual respect for the other's field of expertise, and an enjoyment of stimulating disputes. Their correspondence reflects a shared passion for literature and architecture, and their belief that by practising their respective professions, they were making an important contribution to the new socialist society that was to be created.
Brigitte Reimann (1933–1973) decided to become a writer soon after leaving school. She was a teacher for a while, then worked at the Gaskombinat Schwarze Pumpe gas and coal works, where she led the Zirkel Schreibender Arbeiter, the 'writing workers' circle'. She was appointed to the board of the Deutscher Schriftstellerverband, the East German writers' association, in 1963.
The architect Hermann Henselmann (1905–1995) was banned from the Reichskulturkammer in 1935, and therefore not permitted to practise his profession. After 1945, he became one of the most important German post-war architects. Primarily, he had a major influence on the look of the GDR's prestigious buildings, and designed Strausberger Platz in Berlin, for example, as well as the high-rise buildings of the universities in Leipzig and Jena.
Fritzi Haberlandt is well-known for both her theatre work, where she has collaborated with Robert Wilson, Michael Thalheimer, Jan Bosse, Armin Petras and others, as well as her film and TV appearances, for example in Fog in August, or Babylon Berlin. She won the Deutscher Theaterpreis DER FAUST theatre award for best actress for her performance in Angabe der Person at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.
Devid Striesow, originally from Bergen on the island of Rügen, studied at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art. He and Fritzi Haberlandt were in the same year there. He is above all known for his film and TV appearances, for example in I'm Off Then, 3, and in the crime series Schwartz & Schwartz. In the theatre, he has performed, and continues to perform, under such directors as Jürgen Gosch, Karin Beier and Thorsten Lensing.
