Michael Ende facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michael Ende
Ende in 1962 (photo by Christine Meile)
Born	(1929-11-12)12 November 1929 Garmisch, Germany
Died	28 August 1995(1995-08-28) (aged 65) Filderstadt, Germany
Occupation	Fiction writer
Period	c. 1960–1995
Genre	Fantasy, children's fiction
Notable works	The Neverending Story Momo Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver
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Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende (born November 12, 1929 – died August 28, 1995) was a famous German writer. He wrote many popular fantasy and children's books. He is best known for his amazing fantasy story The Neverending Story. This book was even made into a movie in the 1980s and an animated TV show. Other well-known books by him include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver. His books have been translated into over 40 languages and have sold more than 35 million copies around the world.

Early Life and Growing Up

Michael Ende was born on November 12, 1929, in Garmisch, a town in Bavaria, Germany. He was the only child of Edgar Ende, a painter, and Luise Bartholomä Ende, a physiotherapist. In 1935, when Michael was six, his family moved to a part of Munich called Schwabing, which was known for artists. Growing up in this creative environment helped shape his writing later on.

In 1936, the Nazi Party in Germany declared his father's artwork "degenerate art" and banned it. This meant Edgar Ende had to paint and draw in secret.

World War II and Its Impact

The terrible events of World War II greatly affected Michael Ende's childhood. He was only twelve years old when he saw the first Allied bombing raid on Munich.

He was very scared by the huge Hamburg bombing in 1943, which he experienced while visiting his uncle. His uncle quickly sent him back to Munich. There, Michael attended school until schools closed because of the intense air raids. He returned to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where he lived in boarding houses. It was here that he became very interested in German poetry. He started writing his own poems and studying different literary styles. Since most recent German poetry was banned by the Nazis, he studied the German Romantic poet Novalis.

In 1944, his father's art studio in Munich was destroyed by fire, and over 250 paintings and sketches were lost. In 1945, German young people as young as fourteen were forced to join the Volkssturm (a home guard) and fight against the Allied armies. Michael Ende was also called to join, but he tore up his papers. Instead, he joined a secret German resistance group that worked against the Nazi SS. Ende helped the group by delivering messages for the rest of the war.

In 1946, Michael Ende's school reopened. Later, with help from family friends, he finished high school at a Waldorf School in Stuttgart. During this time, he began to write stories and dreamed of becoming a playwright.

Becoming a Writer

While in Stuttgart, Ende learned about different writing styles like Expressionist and Dadaist writing. He especially loved the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. He also tried acting with friends. His first play, "Denn die Stunde drängt" (As Time is Running Out), was about Hiroshima, but it was never performed.

Ende decided he wanted to be a playwright. Since he couldn't afford university, he tried out for the Otto Falckenberg School of the Performing Arts in Munich in 1948 and received a scholarship.

Early Career and Acting

After drama school, his first job was as an actor with a small theater company. They traveled by bus, performing on makeshift stages. He often played older men or bad guys and barely had time to learn his lines. Even though acting was disappointing, Ende learned a lot. He felt this practical experience was more useful than a literature degree. He said, "Anyone interested in writing should be made to do that sort of thing."

In the 1950s, Michael Ende started writing short sketches, songs, and monologues for cabaret groups. He also worked as a film critic.

Writing Jim Button and Success

In the late 1950s, Ende began writing his first novel, Jim Button.

Michael Ende often said that ideas came to him only when the story needed them. Sometimes, he waited a long time for inspiration. For example, while writing Jim Button, his characters, Jim and Luke, got stuck among black rocks. Ende didn't know how to get them out. Three weeks later, he suddenly had an idea: the steam from their train could freeze and cover the rocks in snow, saving them! He once said, "In my case, writing is primarily a question of patience."

After almost a year, the 500-page story was finished. He sent it to ten different publishers, but they all said it was "unsuitable" or "too long for children." He almost gave up, but then he tried a small family publisher, K. Thienemann Verlag. The company director, Lotte Weitbrecht, liked the story but asked him to publish it as two separate books.

The first Jim Button novel was published in 1960. About a year later, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver won the German Prize for Children's Fiction. With the prize money, Michael Ende's money problems ended, and his writing career truly began. The book was also nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

The second Jim Button novel, Jim Button and the Wild Thirteen, came out in 1962. Both books were made into radio and TV shows. They sold so quickly that the publisher could barely keep up, and soon they were translated into many languages.

Michael Ende's Writing Style

Ende often said he wrote for "the child in me, and in all of us." He believed his books were for "any child between 80 and 8 years." He sometimes felt frustrated that people only saw him as a children's writer. He felt his books talked about important cultural problems and deep wisdom for people of all ages.

Ende's writing mixes reality and fantasy. He often invited readers to be part of the story. The worlds in his books often reflect our own world, using fantasy to highlight problems in our modern, technology-focused society. A common theme in his work was the idea of losing fantasy and magic in the modern world.

Michael Ende's Connection to Japan

Michael Ende was fascinated by Japan since he was a child. He loved Japanese legends and ghost stories. He was especially interested in how different Japanese language and culture were from German. He found it amazing how everyday things in Japan were turned into detailed rituals, like the tea ceremony.

Ende became very popular in Japan. By 1993, over two million copies of Momo and The Neverending Story had been sold there.

In 1986, he was invited to speak in Tokyo. In 1989, an exhibition about Michael and his father Edgar Ende opened in Tokyo and toured other Japanese cities. Michael Ende attended the opening and spent two months touring Japan. This was his third trip, and he was with Mariko Sato, whom he married later that year. An archive dedicated to Michael Ende was created in a museum in Japan, where he donated letters and personal items.

Personal Life

On New Year's Eve 1952, Michael Ende met actress Ingeborg Hoffmann. She was eight years older than him. They started a relationship and married in 1964 in Rome, Italy. Ingeborg helped Michael with his writing, reading his manuscripts and discussing them with him. She also encouraged him to join the Humanist Union, an organization that supports humanist values. Together, they worked for human rights and peace. Ingeborg passed away suddenly in 1985 at the age of 63.

For fourteen years, Ende and Hoffmann lived near Rome in a house they called Casa Liocorno ("The Unicorn"). It was there that Ende wrote most of his novel Momo. After his wife's death, Ende sold the house and moved back to Munich.

He married a second time in 1989 to Mariko Sato, a Japanese woman. They stayed married until his death. He first met Mariko Sato in 1976. She worked at the International Youth Library in Munich and translated some of Ende's books into Japanese. She also helped him understand Japanese culture. They worked together to translate Japanese fairy tales into German. Mariko Sato traveled with him on many trips to Japan. Michael Ende did not have any children.

Death

In June 1994, Michael Ende was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He received various treatments, but the disease got worse. He passed away in Filderstadt, Germany, on August 28, 1995.

Michael Ende's Books

Children's Novels

• Jim Button (Jim Knopf) series:
  • Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (1960)
    • Won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1961.
  • Jim Button and the Wild 13 (1962)

• Stand-alone novels:
  • Momo, also known as The Grey Gentlemen (1973)
    • Won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1974.
  • The Neverending Story (1979)
  • The Night of Wishes: Or the Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion (1989)
  • Rodrigo Raubein und Knirps, sein Knappe (2019), a novel started by Ende and finished by Wieland Freund.

Children's Short Stories

• Some of his short stories include:
  • "Tranquilla Trampeltrue — the Persistent Tortoise" (1972)
  • "The Little Rag Puppet" (1975)
  • "The Dream Eater" (1978)
  • "The Lindworm and the Butterfly" (1981)
  • "Ophelia's Shadow Theatre" (1988)
  • "The Story of the Bowl and the Spoon" (1990)
  • "Lenchen's Secret" (1991)
  • "The Long Way to Santa Cruz" (1992)
  • "The Teddy Bear and the Animals" (1993)

• Collections of his short stories:
  • The School of Magic and Other Stories (1994) - This book has 20 short stories.

Adult Short Stories

• Collections:
  • Mirror in the Mirror: A Labyrinth (1984) - This book has 30 short stories.
  • The Prison of Freedom (1992) - This book has 8 short stories.

Plays

• The Spoilsports, or The Fools' Inheritance (1967)
• The Entertainer's Tale (1982)
• The Goggolori (1984), an opera
• The Hunting of the Snark (1988), an opera based on a poem by Lewis Carroll

Poems

• The Nonsense Book (1969)
• The Shadow Sewing Machine (1982)
• Flea Market of Dreams: Midnight Songs and Quiet Ballads (1986)

Non-fiction Books

• Edgar Ende (1971) - About his father.
• Archaeology of Darkness. Discussions about Art and the Work of Painter Edgar Ende (1985)
• Michael Ende's File-Card Box: Sketches and Notes (1994) - A collection of his writings.

Movies and Shows Based on His Books

Many of Michael Ende's books have been made into movies and TV shows:

• Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (1961) - An animated series based on Jim Button.
• The NeverEnding Story (1984) - A famous film based on his novel.
• Momo (1986) - A film based on the novel Momo.
• The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990) - A sequel film.
• The Neverending Story (1995-1996) - An animated TV series.
• Jim Button (1999-2001) - An animated series.
• Wunschpunsch (2000-2002) - An animated series based on The Night of Wishes.
• Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (2018) - A live-action film.
• Jim Button and the Wild 13 (2020) - A live-action sequel film.

See also

In Spanish: Michael Ende para niños