Pierrot, the Harlequin and Don Quixote come from Berlin. They are the actors in Harald Metzkes' paintings, the parable-like characters in the great tragicomedy of human life, the ambivalent interplay between 'black and white' in daily as well as political life. Using characters from literature, mythology and the circus, Metzkes rejected the ideological appropriation of the GDR state apparatus. His melancholic sensualism made him a protagonist of the Berlin School. Reiner E. Moritz visited the 'Cézannist' shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In conversation with Metzkes, he traces the life and work of one of East Germany's most lyrical artists.