Erich Kästner
Encyclopedia
Emil Erich Kästner (ˈʔeːʁɪç ˈkɛstnɐ) (23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German author, poet
, screenwriter
and satirist
, known for his humorous, socially astute poetry and children's literature
.
, Kingdom of Saxony
. He grew up in the Königsbrücker Straße of Dresden's Äußere Neustadt
. Close by, the Erich Kästner Museum is located on the ground floor of Kästner's uncle Franz Augustin's former villa on Antonstraße next to the Albertplatz.
Kästner's father Emil was a master
saddle
maker. His mother Ida, née Augustin, was a maidservant and housewife, and in her thirties trained to be a hairstylist in order to supplement her husband's income. Kästner had a particularly close relationship with his mother. While he lived in Leipzig
and Berlin
, he wrote her fairly intimate daily letters and postcards. His novels, too, seem to be pervaded by overbearing mothers. It was rumored that Erich Kästner's natural father was not Emil Kästner, but rather the Jewish family doctor, Emil Zimmermann (1864–1953). These rumors never were substantiated. Kästner wrote about his childhood in his 1957 autobiography
When I Was a Little Boy. According to Kästner, he did not suffer from being an only child
, had many friends, and was not lonely or over-indulged.
In 1913, Kästner entered a teacher training school in Dresden, but left the school in 1916 shortly before completing the courses that would have qualified him to teach at public schools. The German Empire
was in turmoil. In 1914, when he was 15, World War I
broke out. He later wrote about the event that it "brought an end to my childhood." Kästner was drafted in 1917 and became part of a heavy artillery company. The brutality of the training he underwent as a soldier impressed Kästner strongly; this and the slaughter of the war in general had a strong influence on his antimilitarist
opinions. Moreover, the merciless drilling by Kästner's sergeant Waurich caused the author a life-long heart affliction. Kästner critiques the sergeant's character in his poem Sergeant Waurich. At the end of the war, Kästner returned to school and achieved the Abitur
with distinction, earning a scholarship
(Stipendium) from the city of Dresden.
In the autumn of 1919, Kästner enrolled at the University of Leipzig
to study history
, philosophy
, German language and literature
and theatre
. His studies took Kästner to Rostock
and Berlin, and in 1925 he received a doctorate
for a thesis on Frederick the Great
and German literature. Kästner paid for his studies by working as a journalist
and drama critic
for the prestigious Neue Leipziger Zeitung newspaper. Kästner's increasingly critical reviews and the "frivolous" publication of his erotic poem Abendlied des Kammervirtuosen (Evening Song of the Chamber Virtuoso) —with illustrations by Erich Ohser— got him fired in 1927. The same year, Kästner moved to Berlin. He did, however, continue to write for the Neue Leipziger Zeitung under the pseudonym
"Berthold Bürger" ("Bert Citizen") as a freelance correspondent. Kästner would later use several other pseudonyms, for example "Melchior Kurtz," "Peter Flint," and "Robert Neuner".
and the rise of the Nazis
in 1933 were his most productive. In just a few years, Kästner became one of the most important intellectual figures in the German capital. He published poems, newspaper columns, articles, and reviews in many of Berlin's important periodicals. Kästner was a regular contributor to different daily newspapers such as the Berliner Tageblatt
and the Vossische Zeitung
, as well as to the theater journal Die Weltbühne
. In Kästner's Complete Works (published in German in 1998), editors Hans Sarkowicz and Franz Josef Görtz list over 350 articles from 1923 to 1933, but the actual number may be much higher. Much was lost when Kästner's flat burnt during a World War II
bombing raid in February 1944.
In 1928 Kästner published his first book, Herz auf Taille, a collection of poems he wrote in Leipzig. Kästner published three more collections of poetry by 1933. His Gebrauchslyrik (Lyrics for Everyday Use) made him the leading figure of the Neue Sachlichkeit
movement, which focused on a sobering, distant and objective style employed to satirize contemporary society. Other major writers of the movement include Joseph Roth
, Hermann Hesse
, Carl Zuckmayer
, Erich Maria Remarque
, Thomas Mann
, and Heinrich Mann
.
In the autumn of 1928, Kästner published his best-known children's book
, Emil und die Detektive
(Emil and the Detectives). The owner of the Weltbühnen-Verlag publishing house, Edith Jacobsen, had suggested the detective story to Kästner. The book sold two million copies in Germany and has been translated into 59 languages, including English
. The most unusual aspect of the novel, compared to existing children's literature at the time, was that it was realistically set in the centre of contemporary Berlin, not in a fantasy world; also that it refrained from all-too-obvious moralising, letting the characters' deeds speak for themselves. Its 1933 sequel Emil und die Drei Zwillinge (Emil and the Three Twins) was set on the shores of the Baltic
.
The Emil books had an important role in popularising the sub-genre of "Children Detectives", later taken up by other writers of children's books such as Enid Blyton
.
Kästner followed up on his success with Pünktchen und Anton (1931) and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer
(1933). Walter Trier
's illustration helped make the books as popular as they still are.
In 1932 he wrote Der 35. Mai (The 35th of May)
, set in a fantasy land reached via a wardrobe (from which C. S. Lewis
may have got the idea for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
), and which included futuristic features such as mobile phone
s.
Gerhard Lamprecht
's 1931 film version of Emil und die Detektive
was a great success. Kästner, however, was dissatisfied with the screenplay
. This led him to work as a screenwriter for the Babelsberg
film studios.
Kästner's only adult novel of stature is Fabian (1931). Kästner wrote the novel in an almost cinematic style: Rapid cuts and montages are important stylistic elements. The novel is set in early 1930s Berlin. Kästner lets the unemployed German literary expert Fabian explain the uproarious quick pace of the times and the downfall of the Weimar Republic
.
From 1927 until 1931, Kästner lived at Prager Straße 17 (today near no. 12) in Berlin–Wilmersdorf
; after that until February 1944 he lived at Roscherstraße 16 in Berlin-Charlottenburg
.
and wrote for children because of his belief in the regenerating powers of youth. He was opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany that began on 30 January 1933
and was one of the signatories to the Urgent Call for Unity
. However, unlike many of his fellow authors critical of the dictatorship, Kästner did not emigrate. Kästner did travel to Meran and to Switzerland
just after the Nazis assumed power, and he met with exiled fellow writers there. However, Kästner returned to Berlin, arguing that he could chronicle the times better from there. It is probable that Kästner also wanted to avoid abandoning his mother. His epigram
Necessary Answer to Superfluous Questions (Notwendige Antwort auf überflüssige Fragen) in Kurz und Bündig explains Kästner's position:
The Gestapo
interrogated Kästner several times, and the writers' guild excluded him. The Nazis burnt Kästner's books as "contrary to the German
spirit" during the infamous book burnings
of May 10th 1933, which was instigated by the then Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
. Kästner witnessed the event in person. Kästner was denied entry into the new Nazi-controlled national writers' guild, the Reichsschrifttumskammer, because of what officials called the "culturally Bolshevist
attitude in his writings predating 1933." This amounted to a gag order
for Kästner throughout the Third Reich
. Instead, Kästner published apolitical, entertaining novels such as Drei Männer im Schnee (Three Men in the Snow) (1934) in Switzerland
. Kästner received an exemption to write the well-regarded screenplay Münchhausen under the pseudonym
Berthold Bürger in 1942. Bombs destroyed Kästner's home in Berlin in 1944. In early 1945, Kästner and others faked a filming engagement in the remote Mayrhofen
in Tyrol
to avoid the brutal Soviet
assault on Berlin. Kästner was in Mayrhofen when the war ended. He wrote about this time in a diary that he published in 1961 as Notabene 45.
Kästner moved to Munich
. There, he was the culture editor for the Neue Zeitung newspaper and published a magazine, Pinguin, aimed at children and teenagers. Kästner was also active in literary cabaret
; he was involved in productions at the Schaubude (1945–1948) and Die kleine Freiheit (after 1951). Additionally, he worked for different radio
networks. During this time, Kästner wrote a number of skits
, song
s, audio plays, speeches
, and essay
s about National Socialism
, World War II
, and the stark realities of destroyed post-war Germany
. These works include the Marschlied 1945, the Deutsches Ringelspiel. This was followed by the children's book
Die Konferenz der Tiere (The Animals' Conference), a Pacifist satire in which the world's animals unite to successfully force humans to disarm and make peace with each other; it was made into an animated film by Curt Linda. He also renewed his collaboration with Edmund Nick
whom he had met in Leipzig in 1929 where Nick, then Head of the Music Department at Radio Silesia, wrote the music to Kästner's very successful radio play Leben in dieser Zeit. Nick was now the Musical Director at the Schaubude and set more than 60 of Kästner's songs to music.
Kästner's optimism during the immediate post-war years gave way to resignation as the people of West Germany
attempted to normalize their lives following the economic reforms of the early 1950s and the ensuing boom called the "economic miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder
"). His pacifism suffered further with the call by chancellor Konrad Adenauer
and his realpolitik
allies to remilitarize West Germany
so that it could do its part in defending the democracies of Western Europe
and the NATO against the Soviet dictatorships, including communist
East Germany, which formed the Warsaw Pact
under the leadership of the Soviet Union. Kästner remained a pacifist, speaking at the antimilitarist Ostermarsch demonstrations that protested the stationing of nuclear weapon
s in West Germany. He later also took a stand against the Vietnam War
.
Kästner began publishing less and less, in part because of a growing alcoholism
. He did not integrate into any of the post-war literary movements in West Germany
and in the 1950s and 1960s was perceived mainly as an author of children's books. Kästner was not rediscovered as the serious writer of his work during the Weimar Republic
until the 1970s.
His novel Fabian was made into a movie in 1980, as well as several of his children's books. At least in America the most famous adaptation was Das doppelte Lottchen, or Lottie and Lisa
, which was made into a film twice: in 1961 and in 1998
.
Nevertheless, Kästner was very successful. His children's books sold well and were translated into many different languages. Several of the novels were made into movies. Kästner received a number of prizes, including the Filmband in Gold
for the best screenplay for the movie Das doppelte Lottchen in 1951, the prize in literature of the city of Munich in 1956, and the Georg Büchner Prize
in 1957. The German government honored Kästner with its order of merit, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, in 1959. In 1960 Kästner received the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Prize and in 1968 the Lessing-Ring together with the Prize in Literature of the German Masonic Order
. His work When I Was a Boy
earned a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
in 1961.
In 1951, Kästner was elected president of the West German P.E.N.
Center, and he remained in office until 1961. In 1965 he became the group's president emeritus. Kästner was also instrumental in the founding of Munich's Internationale Jugendbibliothek library.
Kästner never married. However, he wrote his last two children's books Der kleine Mann and Der kleine Mann und die kleine Miss for his son Thomas Kästner, who was born in 1957.
Kästner frequently read from his works. Already in the 1920s, he recorded his socio-critical poems. In movies based on his books, he often lent his voice to the narrator, as he did for the first audio production of Pünktchen und Anton. Other recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon
include poems, epigrams, and his version of the folktale Till Eulenspiegel
. Kästner also read in theatres like the Cuvilliés Theatre
in Munich, and for the radio, such as Als ich ein kleiner Junge war (When I Was A Little Boy).
After his death in Munich
's Neuperlach hospital on 29 July 1974, Kästner was buried in the St. George cemetery in the Bogenhausen
district of Munich. Shortly after his death, the Bavarian Academy of Arts established a literary prize in his honor, appropriately named the Erich Kästner Prize.
is among the many languages to which Kästner's works were translated, and they enjoyed enormous popularity in Israel
during the 1950s and 1960s – a very exceptional phenomenon at the time, when there was among Israelis a very strong aversion to, and widespread boycotting of, all things German in the aftermath of the Holocaust
. Even parents who were themselves Holocaust survivors are known to have bought Kästner books for their children. As a kind of unintentional "cultural ambassador", Kästner may have helped prepare the ground for the gradual rapprochement between Israeli Jews and Germans taking place since the middle 1960s.
It should be noted that in the Hebrew translation of Das doppelte Lottchen, the chapters taking place in the original in Munich
were transferred to Zürich
, apparently due to the translator and publisher's special aversion to the city where Hitler
started his career, and generally to make the book "less German" (German films at the time were often presented in Israel as "Austrian films" for the same reason). His collection of short stories for children, Das Schwein beim Friseur (The Pig at the Barbershop) was renamed in Hebrew The Billy-Goat at the Barbershop to bypass a perceived Jewish sensitivity to the subject of pigs, traditionally anathema to Jews.
shortly after its firebombing
in February 1945 and finding it a pile of ruins, so much so that he could recognise none of the streets and landmarks among which he had spent his childhood and youth.
His autobiographical book When I Was a Little Boy begins with a lament for Dresden: "I was born in the most beautiful city in the world. Even if your father, child, was the richest man in the world, he could not take you to see it, because it does not exist any more. (...) In a thousand years was her beauty built, in one night was it utterly destroyed".
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and satirist
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, known for his humorous, socially astute poetry and children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
.
Dresden 1899–1919
Kästner was born in DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Kingdom of Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
. He grew up in the Königsbrücker Straße of Dresden's Äußere Neustadt
Äußere Neustadt
Äußere Neustadt , also known as Antonstadt after Anthony , King of Saxony, is a neighborhood in Dresden, Germany. The Äußere Neustadt contains the part of the Neustadt that is located outside of where the old city walls used to be...
. Close by, the Erich Kästner Museum is located on the ground floor of Kästner's uncle Franz Augustin's former villa on Antonstraße next to the Albertplatz.
Kästner's father Emil was a master
Master craftsman
A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....
saddle
Saddle
A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...
maker. His mother Ida, née Augustin, was a maidservant and housewife, and in her thirties trained to be a hairstylist in order to supplement her husband's income. Kästner had a particularly close relationship with his mother. While he lived in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, he wrote her fairly intimate daily letters and postcards. His novels, too, seem to be pervaded by overbearing mothers. It was rumored that Erich Kästner's natural father was not Emil Kästner, but rather the Jewish family doctor, Emil Zimmermann (1864–1953). These rumors never were substantiated. Kästner wrote about his childhood in his 1957 autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
When I Was a Little Boy. According to Kästner, he did not suffer from being an only child
Only child
An only child is a person with no siblings, either biological or adopted. In a family with multiple offspring, first-borns, may be briefly considered only children and have a similar early family environment, but the term only child is generally applied only to those individuals who never have...
, had many friends, and was not lonely or over-indulged.
In 1913, Kästner entered a teacher training school in Dresden, but left the school in 1916 shortly before completing the courses that would have qualified him to teach at public schools. The German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
was in turmoil. In 1914, when he was 15, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out. He later wrote about the event that it "brought an end to my childhood." Kästner was drafted in 1917 and became part of a heavy artillery company. The brutality of the training he underwent as a soldier impressed Kästner strongly; this and the slaughter of the war in general had a strong influence on his antimilitarist
Antimilitarism
Antimilitarism is a doctrine commonly found in the anarchist and, more globally, in the socialist movement, which may both be characterized as internationalist movements. It relies heavily on a critical theory of nationalism and imperialism, and was an explicit goal of the First and Second...
opinions. Moreover, the merciless drilling by Kästner's sergeant Waurich caused the author a life-long heart affliction. Kästner critiques the sergeant's character in his poem Sergeant Waurich. At the end of the war, Kästner returned to school and achieved the Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
with distinction, earning a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
(Stipendium) from the city of Dresden.
Leipzig 1919–1927
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
to study history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, German language and literature
German studies
German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the...
and theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. His studies took Kästner to Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
and Berlin, and in 1925 he received a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
for a thesis on Frederick the Great
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
and German literature. Kästner paid for his studies by working as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and drama critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
for the prestigious Neue Leipziger Zeitung newspaper. Kästner's increasingly critical reviews and the "frivolous" publication of his erotic poem Abendlied des Kammervirtuosen (Evening Song of the Chamber Virtuoso) —with illustrations by Erich Ohser— got him fired in 1927. The same year, Kästner moved to Berlin. He did, however, continue to write for the Neue Leipziger Zeitung under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Berthold Bürger" ("Bert Citizen") as a freelance correspondent. Kästner would later use several other pseudonyms, for example "Melchior Kurtz," "Peter Flint," and "Robert Neuner".
Berlin 1927–1933
Kästner's years in Berlin from 1927 until the end of the Weimar RepublicWeimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
and the rise of the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in 1933 were his most productive. In just a few years, Kästner became one of the most important intellectual figures in the German capital. He published poems, newspaper columns, articles, and reviews in many of Berlin's important periodicals. Kästner was a regular contributor to different daily newspapers such as the Berliner Tageblatt
Berliner Tageblatt
The Berliner Tageblatt or BT was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872-1939. Along with the Frankfurter Zeitung, it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.-History:...
and the Vossische Zeitung
Vossische Zeitung
The Vossische Zeitung was the well known liberal German newspaper that was published in Berlin . Its predecessor was founded in 1704...
, as well as to the theater journal Die Weltbühne
Die Weltbühne
Die Weltbühne was a German weekly magazine focused on politics, art, and business. The Weltbühne was founded in Berlin on 7 September 1905 by Siegfried Jacobsohn and was originally created strictly as a theater magazine under the title Die Schaubühne. It was renamed Die Weltbühne on 4 April 1918...
. In Kästner's Complete Works (published in German in 1998), editors Hans Sarkowicz and Franz Josef Görtz list over 350 articles from 1923 to 1933, but the actual number may be much higher. Much was lost when Kästner's flat burnt during a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
bombing raid in February 1944.
In 1928 Kästner published his first book, Herz auf Taille, a collection of poems he wrote in Leipzig. Kästner published three more collections of poetry by 1933. His Gebrauchslyrik (Lyrics for Everyday Use) made him the leading figure of the Neue Sachlichkeit
New Objectivity
The New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...
movement, which focused on a sobering, distant and objective style employed to satirize contemporary society. Other major writers of the movement include Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth , was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' translated in...
, Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
, Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
, Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
, Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
, and Heinrich Mann
Heinrich Mann
Luiz Heinrich Mann was a German novelist who wrote works with strong social themes. His attacks on the authoritarian and increasingly militaristic nature of pre-World War II German society led to his exile in 1933.-Life and work:Born in Lübeck as the oldest child of Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann...
.
In the autumn of 1928, Kästner published his best-known children's book
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
, Emil und die Detektive
Emil and the Detectives
Emil and the Detectives is a 1929 novel for children set mainly in Berlin, by the German writer Erich Kästner. It was Kästner's first major success, the only one of his pre-1945 works to escape Nazi censorship, and remains his best-known work, and has been translated into at least 59 languages...
(Emil and the Detectives). The owner of the Weltbühnen-Verlag publishing house, Edith Jacobsen, had suggested the detective story to Kästner. The book sold two million copies in Germany and has been translated into 59 languages, including English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. The most unusual aspect of the novel, compared to existing children's literature at the time, was that it was realistically set in the centre of contemporary Berlin, not in a fantasy world; also that it refrained from all-too-obvious moralising, letting the characters' deeds speak for themselves. Its 1933 sequel Emil und die Drei Zwillinge (Emil and the Three Twins) was set on the shores of the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
.
The Emil books had an important role in popularising the sub-genre of "Children Detectives", later taken up by other writers of children's books such as Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
.
Kästner followed up on his success with Pünktchen und Anton (1931) and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer
The Flying Classroom
The Flying Classroom is a 1933 novel for children written by the German writer Erich Kästner.In the book Kästner took up the predominantly British genre of the school story, taking place in a boarding school, and transferred it to an unmistakable German background...
(1933). Walter Trier
Walter Trier
Walter Trier was an illustrator, best known for his work for the children's books of Erich Kästner and the covers of the magazine Lilliput....
's illustration helped make the books as popular as they still are.
In 1932 he wrote Der 35. Mai (The 35th of May)
The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas
The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas is a novel by Erich Kästner, first published in 1931.-Plot introduction:...
, set in a fantasy land reached via a wardrobe (from which C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
may have got the idea for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Published in 1950 and set circa 1940, it is the first-published book of The Chronicles of Narnia and is the best known book of the series. Although it was written and published first, it is second in the series'...
), and which included futuristic features such as mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s.
Gerhard Lamprecht
Gerhard Lamprecht
Gerhard Lamprecht was a German film director and screenwriter. He directed 63 films between 1920 and 1958. He also wrote for 26 films between 1918 and 1958...
's 1931 film version of Emil und die Detektive
Emil and the Detectives (1931 film)
Emil and the Detectives is a 1931 adventure film directed by Gerhard Lamprecht and starring Rolf Wenkhaus...
was a great success. Kästner, however, was dissatisfied with the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
. This led him to work as a screenwriter for the Babelsberg
Potsdam-Babelsberg
Babelsberg is the largest district of the Brandenburg capital Potsdam in Germany. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as for Studio...
film studios.
Kästner's only adult novel of stature is Fabian (1931). Kästner wrote the novel in an almost cinematic style: Rapid cuts and montages are important stylistic elements. The novel is set in early 1930s Berlin. Kästner lets the unemployed German literary expert Fabian explain the uproarious quick pace of the times and the downfall of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
.
From 1927 until 1931, Kästner lived at Prager Straße 17 (today near no. 12) in Berlin–Wilmersdorf
Wilmersdorf
Wilmersdorf is an inner city locality of Berlin, formerly a borough by itself but since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform a part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.-History:...
; after that until February 1944 he lived at Roscherstraße 16 in Berlin-Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
.
Berlin 1933–1945
Kästner was a pacifistPacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
and wrote for children because of his belief in the regenerating powers of youth. He was opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany that began on 30 January 1933
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
and was one of the signatories to the Urgent Call for Unity
Urgent Call for Unity
The "Urgent Call for Unity" was an appeal by the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund to defeat the Nazis...
. However, unlike many of his fellow authors critical of the dictatorship, Kästner did not emigrate. Kästner did travel to Meran and to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
just after the Nazis assumed power, and he met with exiled fellow writers there. However, Kästner returned to Berlin, arguing that he could chronicle the times better from there. It is probable that Kästner also wanted to avoid abandoning his mother. His epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
Necessary Answer to Superfluous Questions (Notwendige Antwort auf überflüssige Fragen) in Kurz und Bündig explains Kästner's position:
- I'm a German from Dresden in Saxony
- My homeland won't let me go
- I'm like a tree that, grown in Germany,
- Will likely wither there also.
The Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
interrogated Kästner several times, and the writers' guild excluded him. The Nazis burnt Kästner's books as "contrary to the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
spirit" during the infamous book burnings
Nazi book burnings
The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.-The book-burning campaign:...
of May 10th 1933, which was instigated by the then Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
. Kästner witnessed the event in person. Kästner was denied entry into the new Nazi-controlled national writers' guild, the Reichsschrifttumskammer, because of what officials called the "culturally Bolshevist
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
attitude in his writings predating 1933." This amounted to a gag order
Gag order
A gag order is an order, sometimes a legal order by a court or government, other times a private order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment from being made public.Gag orders are often used against participants involved in a lawsuit or criminal trial...
for Kästner throughout the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Instead, Kästner published apolitical, entertaining novels such as Drei Männer im Schnee (Three Men in the Snow) (1934) in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Kästner received an exemption to write the well-regarded screenplay Münchhausen under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Berthold Bürger in 1942. Bombs destroyed Kästner's home in Berlin in 1944. In early 1945, Kästner and others faked a filming engagement in the remote Mayrhofen
Mayrhofen
- Twin towns : Chur, Switzerland Bad Tölz, Germany Bad Homburg, Germany Terracina, Italy Cabourg, France Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg- Transport :Mayrhofen has one railway station, which is located next to the Zillertaler Bundestrasse. The station is a terminus for all Train services operated by the...
in Tyrol
Tyrol (state)
Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...
to avoid the brutal Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
assault on Berlin. Kästner was in Mayrhofen when the war ended. He wrote about this time in a diary that he published in 1961 as Notabene 45.
Munich 1945–1974
After the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Kästner moved to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. There, he was the culture editor for the Neue Zeitung newspaper and published a magazine, Pinguin, aimed at children and teenagers. Kästner was also active in literary cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
; he was involved in productions at the Schaubude (1945–1948) and Die kleine Freiheit (after 1951). Additionally, he worked for different radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
networks. During this time, Kästner wrote a number of skits
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
, song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s, audio plays, speeches
Public speaking
Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners...
, and essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s about National Socialism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and the stark realities of destroyed post-war Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. These works include the Marschlied 1945, the Deutsches Ringelspiel. This was followed by the children's book
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
Die Konferenz der Tiere (The Animals' Conference), a Pacifist satire in which the world's animals unite to successfully force humans to disarm and make peace with each other; it was made into an animated film by Curt Linda. He also renewed his collaboration with Edmund Nick
Edmund Nick
Edmund Nick was a German composer, conductor, and music writer.-Biography:The son of a merchant, Nick studied from 1910 to 1915 law in Vienna and Graz. At the same time, he studied music at the Vienna Music Academy and at the Conservatorium Dresden. He received his doctorate in law from the...
whom he had met in Leipzig in 1929 where Nick, then Head of the Music Department at Radio Silesia, wrote the music to Kästner's very successful radio play Leben in dieser Zeit. Nick was now the Musical Director at the Schaubude and set more than 60 of Kästner's songs to music.
Kästner's optimism during the immediate post-war years gave way to resignation as the people of West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
attempted to normalize their lives following the economic reforms of the early 1950s and the ensuing boom called the "economic miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder
Wirtschaftswunder
The term describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II . The expression was used by The Times in 1950...
"). His pacifism suffered further with the call by chancellor Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
and his realpolitik
Realpolitik
Realpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises...
allies to remilitarize West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
so that it could do its part in defending the democracies of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
and the NATO against the Soviet dictatorships, including communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
East Germany, which formed the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
under the leadership of the Soviet Union. Kästner remained a pacifist, speaking at the antimilitarist Ostermarsch demonstrations that protested the stationing of nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s in West Germany. He later also took a stand against the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Kästner began publishing less and less, in part because of a growing alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. He did not integrate into any of the post-war literary movements in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and in the 1950s and 1960s was perceived mainly as an author of children's books. Kästner was not rediscovered as the serious writer of his work during the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
until the 1970s.
His novel Fabian was made into a movie in 1980, as well as several of his children's books. At least in America the most famous adaptation was Das doppelte Lottchen, or Lottie and Lisa
Lottie and Lisa
Lisa and Lottie is a 1949 novel by Erich Kästner, which originally started out during WWII as an aborted movie scenario, about twin girls separated at birth who meet at summer camp. It has been adapted into film many times .-Plot summary:Two nine-year-old girls—rude Lisa Palfy Lisa and...
, which was made into a film twice: in 1961 and in 1998
The Parent Trap (1998 film)
The Parent Trap is a remake of the 1961 family film of the same name. It was directed and co-written by Nancy Meyers, and produced and co-written by Charles Shyer. It stars Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson as a couple who divorce soon after marrying, and Lindsay Lohan in a dual role as their...
.
Nevertheless, Kästner was very successful. His children's books sold well and were translated into many different languages. Several of the novels were made into movies. Kästner received a number of prizes, including the Filmband in Gold
Deutscher Filmpreis
The Deutscher Filmpreis is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie...
for the best screenplay for the movie Das doppelte Lottchen in 1951, the prize in literature of the city of Munich in 1956, and the Georg Büchner Prize
Georg Büchner Prize
The Georg Büchner Prize is the most important literary prize of Germany. It was created in 1923 in memory of Georg Büchner and was only given to artists who came from or were closely tied to Büchner's home of Hesse...
in 1957. The German government honored Kästner with its order of merit, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, in 1959. In 1960 Kästner received the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Prize and in 1968 the Lessing-Ring together with the Prize in Literature of the German Masonic Order
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
. His work When I Was a Boy
earned a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was started in 1958 by Dr. David C. Davis with the assistance of Prof. Lola Pierstorff, Director Instructional Materials Center, Univ. of Wisconsin and Madeline Allen Davis, WHA Wisconsin Public Radio. Awards were presented annually at the Wisconsin Book Conference...
in 1961.
In 1951, Kästner was elected president of the West German P.E.N.
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
Center, and he remained in office until 1961. In 1965 he became the group's president emeritus. Kästner was also instrumental in the founding of Munich's Internationale Jugendbibliothek library.
Kästner never married. However, he wrote his last two children's books Der kleine Mann and Der kleine Mann und die kleine Miss for his son Thomas Kästner, who was born in 1957.
Kästner frequently read from his works. Already in the 1920s, he recorded his socio-critical poems. In movies based on his books, he often lent his voice to the narrator, as he did for the first audio production of Pünktchen und Anton. Other recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
include poems, epigrams, and his version of the folktale Till Eulenspiegel
Till Eulenspiegel
Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent trickster figure originating in Middle Low German folklore. His tales were disseminated in popular printed editions narrating a string of lightly connected episodes that outlined his picaresque career, primarily in Germany, the Low Countries and France...
. Kästner also read in theatres like the Cuvilliés Theatre
Cuvilliés Theatre
The Cuvilliés Theatre or Old Residence Theatre is the former court theatre of the Residenz in Munich, southern Germany.- Description :...
in Munich, and for the radio, such as Als ich ein kleiner Junge war (When I Was A Little Boy).
After his death in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
's Neuperlach hospital on 29 July 1974, Kästner was buried in the St. George cemetery in the Bogenhausen
Bogenhausen
Bogenhausen is the 13th borough of Munich, Germany. It is the geographically largest borough of Munich and comprises the city's north-eastern quarter, reaching from the Isar on the eastern side of the Englischer Garten to the city limits, bordering on Unterföhring to the north, Aschheim to the east...
district of Munich. Shortly after his death, the Bavarian Academy of Arts established a literary prize in his honor, appropriately named the Erich Kästner Prize.
Popularity in Israel
HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
is among the many languages to which Kästner's works were translated, and they enjoyed enormous popularity in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
during the 1950s and 1960s – a very exceptional phenomenon at the time, when there was among Israelis a very strong aversion to, and widespread boycotting of, all things German in the aftermath of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. Even parents who were themselves Holocaust survivors are known to have bought Kästner books for their children. As a kind of unintentional "cultural ambassador", Kästner may have helped prepare the ground for the gradual rapprochement between Israeli Jews and Germans taking place since the middle 1960s.
It should be noted that in the Hebrew translation of Das doppelte Lottchen, the chapters taking place in the original in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
were transferred to Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, apparently due to the translator and publisher's special aversion to the city where Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
started his career, and generally to make the book "less German" (German films at the time were often presented in Israel as "Austrian films" for the same reason). His collection of short stories for children, Das Schwein beim Friseur (The Pig at the Barbershop) was renamed in Hebrew The Billy-Goat at the Barbershop to bypass a perceived Jewish sensitivity to the subject of pigs, traditionally anathema to Jews.
Kästner and the bombing of Dresden
In his 1945 diary, published many years later, Kästner describes his shock at arriving at DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
shortly after its firebombing
Bombing of Dresden in World War II
The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War...
in February 1945 and finding it a pile of ruins, so much so that he could recognise none of the streets and landmarks among which he had spent his childhood and youth.
His autobiographical book When I Was a Little Boy begins with a lament for Dresden: "I was born in the most beautiful city in the world. Even if your father, child, was the richest man in the world, he could not take you to see it, because it does not exist any more. (...) In a thousand years was her beauty built, in one night was it utterly destroyed".
Works
A list of his works, by their German titles and publication dates:- Herz auf Taille, 1928
- Emil und die Detektive, 1929; in English Emil and the DetectivesEmil and the DetectivesEmil and the Detectives is a 1929 novel for children set mainly in Berlin, by the German writer Erich Kästner. It was Kästner's first major success, the only one of his pre-1945 works to escape Nazi censorship, and remains his best-known work, and has been translated into at least 59 languages...
; HollywoodCinema of the United StatesThe cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
film version produced in 1964 ; adapted into film in 1931, 1954, and 2001. - Lärm im Spiegel, 1929
- Ein Mann gibt Auskunft, 1930
- Pünktchen und Anton, 1931; in English, Anna Louise and Anton
- Der 35. Mai, 1931; in English, The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South SeasThe 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South SeasThe 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas is a novel by Erich Kästner, first published in 1931.-Plot introduction:...
- Fabian. Die Geschichte eines Moralisten, 1932; in English, Fabian, the Story of a Moralist
- Gesang zwischen den Stühlen, 1932
- Emil und die Drei Zwillinge (Emil and the Three Twins) 1933 (sequel of the 1929 book)
- Das fliegende Klassenzimmer, 1933; in English, The Flying ClassroomThe Flying ClassroomThe Flying Classroom is a 1933 novel for children written by the German writer Erich Kästner.In the book Kästner took up the predominantly British genre of the school story, taking place in a boarding school, and transferred it to an unmistakable German background...
, adapted into film in 1954 by Kurt HoffmannKurt HoffmannKurt Hoffmann was a German film director. He directed 48 films between 1938 and 1971. His film The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...
and in 2006 by Tomy Wigand. - Drei Männer im Schnee, 1934
- Die verschwundene Miniatur, 1935
- Doktor Erich Kästners Lyrische Hausapotheke, 1936; in English Doctor Erich Kästner's Lyrical Medicine Chest
- Georg und die Zwischenfälle, (AKA Der kleine Grenzverkehr) 1938
- Das doppelte Lottchen, 1949; in English, Lottie and LisaLottie and LisaLisa and Lottie is a 1949 novel by Erich Kästner, which originally started out during WWII as an aborted movie scenario, about twin girls separated at birth who meet at summer camp. It has been adapted into film many times .-Plot summary:Two nine-year-old girls—rude Lisa Palfy Lisa and...
, adapted into film as The Parent Trap in 1961 and 1998. - Die Konferenz der Tiere, 1949
- Die dreizehn Monate, 1955
- Als ich ein kleiner Junge war 1957; in English, When I Was a Little Boy, his autobiography.
- Der kleine Mann 1963; in English, The Little Man
- Der kleine Mann und die kleine Miss 1967
- Mein Onkel Franz 1969