Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945 - 1982), one of the rare German global stars of cinema, wrote a series of poems and prose pieces at the age of seventeen that already hinted at the filmmaker and screenwriter he would later become. Created in 1962/63 during his exile in Cologne, while living with his father and attending evening classes, these texts, published for the first time in 2005, are impressive, touching documents of a precocious genius. With films like Katzelmacher and Angst essen Seele auf, he was the most important representative of the German cinema avant-garde and gained worldwide fame with Effi Briest, The Marriage of Maria Braun, and Lili Marleen. The creative expressiveness that inspired him, his dedication, and attention to detail are evident even in his earliest lyrical and literary attempts. Remarkably self-assured, casual, yet infinitely sensitive.