In a joint effort of a group of research software enthusiasts, the association de-RSE e.V. – Gesellschaft für Forschungssoftware was founded in late November 2018. It seeks to provide a new home to the German community of Research Software Engineers and a first major effort is the organization of the deRSE19 – Conference for Research Software Engineers in Germany. We had the pleasure to talk to Carina Haupt and Stephan Druskat about the research software engineer’s profile, the de-RSE association as well as the deRSE19 conference.