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 radi…