This interview celebrating the 82nd birthday of the ‘Grand old man of German Architecture’ (Die Zeit) sheds some interesting light on questions of tyranny and freedom, of the necessity of imperfection, of struggles to maintain a humane architectural practice in an increasingly pressured and commercial world. It also reveals the underlying reasons why Behnisch could be claimed for Deconstruction while his office's work in many ways predated this so-called movement, and while it pursued an idealistic and optimistic political agenda rather than a cynical or despairing one.