Einar Schleef (1944 - 2001) was born the son of an architect in Sangerhausen. He was a successful and at the same time controversial theatre director of the modern era. In addition to his theatre work, Schleef was also a writer, painter and graphic artist and photographer. In his novel "Gertrud" he processed his mother's life in Sangerhausen. In the process, he reconstructed not only the place and the events, but also the dialect-tinged language of the inhabitants, thus making Sangerhausen a literary place. The drawings and paintings by Einar Schleef are now part of the collection of the Landeskunstmuseum Moritzburg in Halle.
The exhibition, designed by the Einar Schleef-Arbeitskreis e. V., offers an introduction to Schleef's multifaceted artistic work and encourages visitors to take a closer look at his work. In the 1970s, Schleef worked at the Berliner Ensemble. His productions were politically controversial in the GDR. When Schleef was deported to Vienna with a work assignment in 1976, he committed "republican flight" from there to West Berlin. In the mid-1980s he worked in Frankfurt am Main. His novel "Gertrud" was also written there. Most recently, Schleef had great success at the Burgtheater in Vienna, where he directed plays by Elfriede Jelinek.