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from the article "Dérives and Fantalia (1995)":
A last question on possible autobiographical influences. You were born in 1951 and thus experienced the afterbirth of the second world war. Of this drama we find a mere trace in Coutoo, that's all. We ask ourselves what the second world war means to you. What did you hear about it? Did the memory of wartime play an important part in your childhood?
Andreas: I only know the story of my mother who experienced the bombing of Dresden and lost her mother and sister. She studied then. It is especially the period in Dresden that was important to my family. My father wasn't a soldier, he was a doctor, also in Dresden. But he wasn't there during the bombardment. I believe they forgot to enlist him, or at least that is the story they tell in my family. They also forgot my brother. Just forgotten, like my father. I hear more about what my mother experienced. Also because my father died too early for me. He died at 74, but later on I realized: "I should have asked him more questions." There are many things I don't know about my father. That is something you realize too late. At the same time I found enough letters from my mother, correspondence, photographs. After my mother's death I found the letter she wrote my father to let him know that her mother and sister died. It is really very strange to read that. That side is much clearer. Maybe that's why there are less mothers in my stories, because I know a lot about mine. While some episode is missing of my father.