Preface, by Claudia Lenssen
Vous êtes pardonné, Werner
Spiritual mother, natural mother
My model family
Innocence has a friend in heaven
The sun of the night
Muse, companion, friend—Magdalena Montezuma
Rosa/Holger and Carla—the beginning of my artistic work
Argila and
Neurasia
Eika Katappa
. . . and what came of it
Comedies
Friendship
Salome in Baalbek
Beautiful is ugly, ugly is beautiful
The Death of Maria Malibran
Emilia Galotti; or, How the theater discovered me
Willow Springs
California
Passion
Gods in decline
El Angel
A sense of the world—journeys in Latin America
Adventures
Flocons d’or
One must leave so as to understand
Madness, the key to all hearts
Maria
Naples in winter
Champagne Schroeter
The White Journey
Abroad in Germany and Italy
The Bavarian Sausage Conspiracy
La patrie de l’âme
Failure makes you human
Day of the Idiots
A blasphemous clan
Réveille-moi à midi
The Rose King
I and alcohol—alcohol and I
Grief, Longing, Rebellion
Marcelo
Malina
My theatrical family
Where words end, music begins
The Queen
Enough breath for my life
All that life devours
The last love, friendship
The way to something new
This Night
Afterword, by Claudia Lenssen
Appendixes
The prima donna’s broken heart, by Werner Schroeter
Canceling out unbearable reality: A conversation between Monika Keppler and Claudia Lenssen
Life’s work
Filmography
Test films, fragments, incomplete projects
Live performance (plays, musical theater, opera, dance theater)
Chronology
Distinctions and film awards (a selection)
Acknowledgments
Index of Names