"He will become what he is," was written in his graduation certificate. And it was true! Harry Rowohlt became everything he always was and wanted to be: a hilarious linguistic artist and a virtuoso master of digression, a brilliant translator of the untranslatable and a reader with a thousand voices, and to top it all off, "Hobo Harry" in Lindenstraße. Shortly before his death, he said: "I had a happy life!"

But in fact, his life turned out very differently than he had planned. Because he didn't want to become what he was meant to be - his father's successor as publisher - he tried desperately for years to escape Rowohlt publishing.

This biography tells the story of how Harry Rowohlt managed to find a kind of soul connection with Pu the Bear - "We are both stupid, but we get on very well". It is based on countless conversations between NDR literary editor Alexander Solloch and Harry Rowohlt's widow and many companions, as well as on a thorough analysis of his enormous estate, and brings to light many surprises: Harry Rowohlt liked to talk about himself a lot - but not necessarily reliably. This is made up for here.