Marcel Proust questionnaire

Dirk G. Kronsbein – getting personal

The famous “Marcel Proust questionnaire” arrives light-heartedly, yet it is even more of a challenge than it appears at first glance! So it is no surprise that the list of around 30 questions became a popular party game in cultivated salons around 1900, where it gave people an opportunity to score points for their intelligence, wit and charm. Marcel Proust may well have given his name to it, but he “only” loved it and completed it several times himself – he did not invent it.

Dirk G. Kronsbein answered the famous questionnaire for us precisely once. In record time. And with a smile. Here are his answers:

My most important characteristic
Generosity.

The quality I most admire in a man
Honesty.

The quality I most admire in a woman
Trustworthiness.

What I most value in my friends
Honesty.

The mistake I encounter with the greatest tolerance
Meanness.

My greatest weakness
Currently smoking!

My favourite occupation
Pottering in the garden.

My dream of happiness
Contentment.

What would be the greatest of misfortunes for me?
If something was to befall my children.

What I would like to be
Gallery owner.

Country in which I would like to live
Germany.

Favourite colour
Blue.

Favourite flower
Scented English roses.

Favourite bird
Eagle.

Favourite prose writer
Hermann Hesse.

Favourite poets
Schiller and Goethe.

Favourite literary hero
Siegfried.

Favourite literary heroine
Countersuggestion – a heroine from real life: Joan of Arc.

Favourite composer
Tschaikowsky and Chopin.

Favourite painter
Gerhard Richter.

My heroes in real life
Jesus Christus.

My heroes/heroines in history
-

My favourite names
Sarah and David.

What I hate most
Unpunctuality, uncleanliness.

Historical personality that I most despise
Adolf Hitler.

Reform that I most admire
The reformation as the breakthrough of the Protestant church – actually a “back to basics” for the Christian faith.

Natural gift I would like to possess
To be able to play the piano.

How I would like to die
Happy and content, at peace with the world and myself, without sadness.

Present state of mind
I’m in good form.

My motto
Nothing is impossible.