Spring 1958: Ingeborg Bachmann is just broadcasting her radio play The Good God of Manhattan . Max Frisch writes to the "young poet" to say how excited he is about it. Bachmann's reply begins a correspondence that, in around 300 surviving documents, bears witness to the life, love and suffering of one of the most famous couples in German-language literature: intimate messages and at the same time world literature. Renate Langer, co-editor of the correspondence, explains the eagerly awaited edition of the letters, which paints a new, surprising picture of the relationship and questions traditional assessments and accusations.

Why do we destroy each other? Max Frisch to Ingeborg Bachmann, January 6, 1963

Ingeborg Bachmann, born in Klagenfurt in 1926, became known as a poet through an appearance before the Group 47. After the volumes of poetry Die gestundete Zeit (1953) and Invocation of the Great Bear (1956), she published radio plays, essays and two volumes of short stories. Malina (1971) is her only completed novel. Bachmann died in Rome in 1973.

Max Frisch, born in Zurich in 1911, initially worked as a journalist and later as an architect before making his breakthrough as a writer with his novel Stiller (1954). This was followed by the novels Homo faber (1957) and Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964), as well as short stories, diaries, plays, radio plays and essays. Frisch died in Zurich in 1991.

Renate Langer, born in 1961 in Salzburg, is a literary scholar, university lecturer in Salzburg and co-editor of the correspondence between Ingeborg Bachmann and Max Frisch.

An event in cooperation with the Franz Michael Felder Archive of the Vorarlberg State Library.

Photo: Ingeborg Bachmann and Max Frisch, Rome 1962 © Max Frisch Archive, Zurich, Photo: Mario Dondero/SV