"When a model draughtsman from Thuringia conceives a child with the daughter of a sawmill owner from Tilsit at fall fruit time in Wurzen, then one may confidently assume that something extraordinary will result from this union". This is how Wolfgang Knape's book begins about that fellow from Saxony who is regarded as a unique man of letters far beyond the borders of his native town. Many deliciously told, not everyday episodes illustrate the wide range of this amazing Hans Bötticher, who soon called himself Joachim Ringelnatz and his wife Muschelkalk.