The gentle rebel Klaus Schlesinger belonged to the "generation of the headstrong," like Plenzdorf and Jurek Becker. He remained - in a constant switch between systems - lifelong tied to his city, regarded as an anarchist with principles, and left the GDR without letting go of it. He was a realist with a penchant for the surreal; as a storyteller, he was both expansive and precise. He was active and reliable, warm-hearted and stubborn. Anyone who follows his richly detailed biography simultaneously traverses sixty years of German-German history. "Without ever leaving my circle of life, which has a radius of at most five kilometers, I have been able to experience the disadvantages of three societal systems," Klaus Schlesinger summarized in his early fifties, shortly before he would get to know a fourth variant after reunification.