Heiner Müller, one of East Germany’s most important playwrights, is also a dramaturg at the Berliner Ensemble. Though the work performed by German dramaturgs varies, most of them are critics-in-residence who advise theatre directors on play selection and textual interpretation. Müller’s reputation as the author of fifteen plays, including one (*Cement*) now in the Berliner Ensemble repertory, far exceeds his renown as dramaturg; but it was to discuss his lesser known career that I visited the 47-year old writer last July. Müller had toured the United States earlier in the year, and his English was quite passable, unlike my German. I found him reading Thomas Pynchon when I arrived at his small, sparsely furnished apartment in East Berlin. For an hour we drank Irish coffee and talked about East German dramaturgs.