Letter to the editor Uwe-Jens Has talks about the life of a taxi driver and avid reader

2024-10-19 08:44:00

There is this letter writer named Uwe-Jens Has, an older colleague told me one day: “A madman has written countless letters over the last few decades, full of anecdotes about his experiences as a taxi driver and full of references to.” countless novels and non-fiction books, art. Others wrote even more letters to the editor, but these were often senior teachers or retired engineers who corrected errors in a didactic tone. But this rabbit is special: a self-taught taxi driver with a Berlin face. “Meet him and write a portrait about him!”

The archive contains 60 results: this is the number of letters printed by the HAS FAZ to the editor. Once printed there are 30 pages. Reading it you immediately notice that Mr. Has writes as if he speaks. In his letters to the editor there are phrases like “This anecdote comes to mind” or “I have to tell someone”. Regarding the report on the opening of the “Futurium” in Berlin-Mitte he writes: “Is it worth the journey from Berlin-Zehlendorf? Ick wees et nich.” In tribute to the cellist Mstislaw Rostropowitsch: “Small reading festival as always, reminds me that once, as a taxi driver, I received an assignment for the Berlin Philharmonic at one in the morning. Artist’s entrance. Who entered? Rostropovich. (…) I had just had Pushkin with me while reading “Belkin’s Tales” and asked him if he could write me a dedication there. He was very happy about it. Probably not so much from the desire, but more from the fact that I was reading Pushkin.”