Sarah Kirsch and Christa Wolf
»We have really gotten used to quite a bit«
A correspondence
Sarah Kirsch and Christa Wolf wrote letters to each other over three decades – fascinating evidence of a literary friendship and public as well as private debates. Their correspondence reveals a bond full of closeness and distantness, affection and friction: Kirsch, playful, individualistic and with a masterful command of language, meets the reflective, deliberative Wolf. They lived through the political shifts of their times together, discussed existential questions and poetry. They supported each other through breaks and new eras – from the idealism in the young GDR to Sarah Kirsch's departure (the authorities permitted her to leave the country in 1977) and personal losses until their ultimate estrangement after Germany's reunification.
Their dialogue was characterised by passion, irony, vulnerability and disputes, and also always by a marked intimacy. It is also a reflection of contemporary history and influenced by the major upheavals of their times, the end of the GDR and increasing cracks in their friendship – until its painful end. They stopped writing to each other in 1992.
This reading with Fritzi Haberlandt and Corinna Harfouch highlights its literary exquisiteness and the rare courage of the two authors to also unflinchingly discuss the foundering of their friendship. Two outstanding voices of the 20th century entered into a unique literary dialogue whose openness and powerfulness are still impactful to this day.
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 television award, for example, the Bavarian and the German film prize awards, and also the Goldene Kamera film and television award in the category of best German actress.
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 has won the Deutscher Theaterpreis DER FAUST theatre award for best actress for her performance in Angabe der Person at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, and is considered to be one of the most versatile actresses of her generation.
Lecture rights: © for the letters of Sarah Kirsch: Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin; © for the letters of Christa Wolf: Gustav Kiepenheuer Bühnenvertriebs-GmbH, Berlin
