Erich Kästner facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Erich Kästner
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Erich Kästner, 1961
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| Born | Emil Erich Kästner 23 February 1899 Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire |
| Died | 29 July 1974 (aged 75) Munich, Bavaria, West Germany |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | German |
| Period | 1928–1969 |
| Genre | Children's literature, poetry, satire, screenplays |
| Notable awards | Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing 1960 |
| Partner | Luiselotte Enderle |
| Children | Thomas Kästner |
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Emil Erich Kästner (born February 23, 1899 – died July 29, 1974) was a famous German writer. He wrote poems, screenplays, and especially wonderful children's books. He was known for his funny and smart poems, and for books like Emil and the Detectives.
In 1960, he won the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his autobiography, Als ich ein kleiner Junse war (When I Was a Little Boy). He was also nominated four times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Contents
Erich Kästner's Early Life and Education
Growing Up in Dresden (1899–1919)
Erich Kästner was born in Dresden, Saxony, Germany. He grew up on Königsbrücker Straße. Today, you can find the Erich Kästner Museum nearby in a building that once belonged to his uncle.
His father, Emil Richard Kästner, was a master saddlemaker. His mother, Ida Amalia, trained as a hairstylist to help the family. Erich was very close to his mother. He wrote to her almost every day when he lived in other cities. You can often see strong mothers in his stories.
Kästner wrote about his childhood in his book Als ich ein kleiner Junge war (When I Was a Little Boy). He said he had many friends and was not lonely, even though he was an only child.
In 1913, Kästner started a teacher training school. But he left in 1916. In 1917, he joined the army. He trained with heavy artillery but did not go to the front lines. The tough military training and seeing friends die made him strongly against war. This training also caused a heart condition that lasted his whole life. He wrote about it in his poem Sergeant Waurich.
After the war, Kästner went back to school. He passed his final exams with excellent grades. This earned him a scholarship from the city of Dresden.
University Days in Leipzig (1919–1927)
In 1919, Kästner began studying at the University of Leipzig. He studied history, philosophy, German literature, and theater. He also studied in Rostock and Berlin. In 1925, he earned a doctorate degree. His paper was about Frederick the Great and German literature.
To pay for his studies, he worked as a journalist and critic for a newspaper called Neue Leipziger Zeitung. Later, he moved to Berlin. He continued to write for the newspaper as a freelance writer. He used the pen name "Berthold Bürger," which means "Bert Citizen." He also used other pen names like "Melchior Kurtz" and "Peter Flint."
Erich Kästner's Writing Career
Productive Years in Berlin (1927–1933)
The years Kästner spent in Berlin, from 1927 to 1933, were his busiest. He wrote many poems, newspaper columns, articles, and reviews. He wrote for major newspapers like the Berliner Tageblatt and Vossische Zeitung. He also wrote for the magazine Die Weltbühne. Experts have found over 350 articles he wrote during this time. Many more were lost when his apartment was bombed in 1944.
Kästner's first book of poems, Herz auf Taille, came out in 1928. By 1933, he had published three more poetry books. His everyday poems, called Gebrauchslyrik, made him a leader in the Neue Sachlichkeit movement. This style used a calm, factual way to make fun of society.
In 1928, he published his most famous children's book, Emil und die Detektive. Walter Trier drew the pictures for it. The book sold two million copies in Germany and has been translated into 59 languages. It was special because it was set in modern Berlin, not a fairy-tale land. Kästner also let the characters' actions show what was right or wrong, instead of directly telling readers.
The sequel, Emil und die Drei Zwillinge (1933), takes place by the Baltic. These "Emil" books may have inspired other child detective stories. Emil und die Detektive has been made into a movie five times.
Kästner also wrote Pünktchen und Anton (1931) and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (1933). Walter Trier's drawings helped make these books very popular. Das fliegende Klassenzimmer has been made into a movie several times.
In 1932, Kästner wrote Der 35. Mai (The 35th of May). This book is about a fantasy land entered through a wardrobe. It even had futuristic ideas like mobile phones!
Kästner was not happy with the screenplay for the 1931 film Emil und die Detektive. This led him to become a screenwriter himself for the Babelsberg film studios.
His only major novel for adults, Fabian, came out in 1931. It tried to copy the style of movies with quick scene changes.
Life During World War II (1933–1945)
Kästner believed in peace and wrote for children because he thought young people could help make the world better. He was against the Nazi government. He signed a special "Urgent Call for Unity" against them.
Unlike many writers who left Germany, Kästner stayed in Berlin. He felt he could better record what was happening there. He also didn't want to leave his mother. He explained his choice in a poem:
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 (Nazi secret police) questioned Kästner many times. The Nazi writers' group kicked him out. On May 10, 1933, the Nazis publicly burned his books. They called his writings "against the German spirit." Kästner actually saw his own books being burned. He was not allowed to join the new Nazi-controlled writers' group.
During this time, Kästner published books that were not political, like Drei Männer im Schnee (Three Men in the Snow) (1934), but he had to publish them in Switzerland. In 1942, he got special permission to write a movie script for Münchhausen. He used the pen name Berthold Bürger for this.
In 1944, Kästner's home in Berlin was destroyed by bombs. In early 1945, he went to a small town called Mayrhofen in Tyrol. He pretended it was for a film shoot, but he really wanted to avoid the final battles in Berlin. He had also heard that the SS (a Nazi organization) planned to kill him and other people who opposed the Nazis. He was in Mayrhofen when the war ended. He wrote about this time in his diary, Notabene 45.
The Bombing of Dresden
In his diary, Kästner wrote about his shock when he returned to Dresden in 1945. The city had been bombed very badly in February 1945. He found it in ruins and could not recognize the streets or places from his childhood.
His autobiography Als ich ein kleiner Junge war starts with a sad message about 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."
Life in Munich After the War (1945–1974)
After the war, Kästner moved to Munich. He became a culture editor for a newspaper called Neue Zeitung. He also started a magazine for children and young people called Pinguin. He wrote many short plays, songs, and essays about the war and life in Germany after the war.
He continued to write children's books. One of them was Die Konferenz der Tiere (The Animals' Conference). This book is a story about animals around the world working together to make humans stop fighting and make peace. This book was made into an animated film.
Kästner was hopeful right after the war. But he became sadder as people in West Germany tried to forget the past and focused on getting rich. He remained a pacifist, meaning he was against war. He spoke out against placing nuclear weapons in West Germany and against the Vietnam War.
Kästner started publishing less and less. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was mostly known as a children's book author.
His novel Fabian was made into a movie in 1980. Many of his children's books were also made into films. The most famous adaptations were the two U.S. movies The Parent Trap, made in 1961 and 1998. These were based on his book Das doppelte Lottchen (Lottie and Lisa).
In 1960, Kästner won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his autobiography Als ich ein kleiner Junge war.
Kästner received many other awards. These included the Filmband in Gold for the screenplay of the German film version of Das doppelte Lottchen (1951). He also received the literary prize of the city of Munich in 1956 and the Georg Büchner Prize in 1957. In 1959, the government of West Germany gave him the Federal Cross of Merit.
From 1951 to 1961, Kästner was the President of the PEN Center of West Germany, a group for writers. He also helped start the Internationale Jugendbibliothek, a library of children's books in Munich.
Kästner never married. 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 often read from his books. He made recordings of his poems and even narrated some of the films based on his books. He also read his works in theaters and on the radio.
Erich Kästner passed away on July 29, 1974, in Munich. He was buried in the St. George cemetery in Munich. Soon after his death, a literary prize was created in his name.
An asteroid, 12318 Kästner, is named after him.
Erich Kästner's Famous Books
Here is a list of some of his well-known works:
- Weihnachtslied, chemisch gereinigt, 1927
- Herz auf Taille, 1928
- Emil und die Detektive, 1929 (Emil and the Detectives)
- Lärm im Spiegel, 1929
- Ein Mann gibt Auskunft, 1930
- Pünktchen und Anton, 1931 (Anna Louise and Anton)
- Der 35. Mai, 1931 (The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas)
- Fabian. Die Geschichte eines Moralisten, 1932
- Gesang zwischen den Stühlen, 1932
- Emil und die Drei Zwillinge 1933 (Emil and the Three Twins)
- Das fliegende Klassenzimmer, 1933 (The Flying Classroom)
- Drei Männer im Schnee, 1934 (Three Men in the Snow)
- Die verschwundene Miniatur, 1935 (The Missing Miniature)
- Doktor Erich Kästners Lyrische Hausapotheke, 1936
- Georg und die Zwischenfälle, (also known as Der kleine Grenzverkehr) 1938 (A Salzburg Comedy)
- Das doppelte Lottchen, 1949 (Lottie and Lisa; also known as The Parent Trap)
- Die Konferenz der Tiere, 1949 (The Animal Congress)
- Die 13 Monate, 1955
- Als ich ein kleiner Junge war 1957 (When I Was a Little Boy)
- Das Schwein beim Friseur 1963
- Der kleine Mann 1963 (The Little Man)
- Der kleine Mann und die kleine Miss 1967 (The Little Man and the Little Miss)
- Mein Onkel Franz 1969
See also
In Spanish: Erich Kästner para niños
