Erdmute Greis-Behrendt

How sad. Erdmute was a wonderfully warm, colourful and cheerful presence in those dismal grey times of Berlin’s bitterly Cold War. With her great ability to read between the (party) lines of the official press, her work as an editorial assistant was invaluable – often doing her utmost to save many a subsequently illustrious correspondent from excruciating errors. But one of her most important personal gifts to me was teaching me in the kitchen of the Reuters flat how to make Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) that were even better than my mother’s Latkes. ■