Ingeborg Bachmann was one of the great stars of literature. A film and a book are being released on the 50th anniversary of her death. Neither work does the poet justice.
by Juliane Liebert
When Ingeborg Bachmann lay in her apartment in Rome with serious burn injuries at the end of September 1973, she did not call the police or the emergency services, but rather a friend, her former housekeeper Maria Teofili. Bachmann fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand. Her nightdress had caught fire. She is taken to hospital, where she dies weeks later. Friends, Hans Werner Henze and the Auer couple, filed a complaint – it was murder. A suspicion that is soon discarded.