German author, poet and satirist (1899?1974)
Erich Kastner
|
---|
Erich Kastner, 1961
|
Born
| Emil Erich Kastner
(
1899-02-23
)
23 February 1899
Dresden
, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire
|
---|
Died
| 29 July 1974
(1974-07-29)
(aged 75)
Munich
, Bavaria, West Germany
|
---|
Occupation
| Writer
|
---|
Period
| 1928?1969
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Genre
| Children's literature, poetry, satire, screenplays
|
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Notable awards
| Hans Christian Andersen Award
for Writing
1960
|
---|
Partner
| Luiselotte Enderle
[
de
]
|
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Children
| Thomas Kastner
|
---|
|
|
Emil Erich Kastner
(
German:
[??eː??c
?k?stn?]
ⓘ
; 23 February 1899 ? 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and
satirist
, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including
Emil and the Detectives
and
The Parent Trap
.
[1]
He received the international
Hans Christian Andersen Medal
in 1960 for his autobiography
Als ich ein kleiner Junge war
[
de
]
.
[2]
[3]
He was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature
in six separate years.
[4]
Biography
[
edit
]
Dresden (1899–1919)
[
edit
]
Kastner was born in
Dresden
,
Saxony
, and grew up on Konigsbrucker Straße in Dresden's
Außere Neustadt
. Close by, the
Erich Kastner Museum
was subsequently opened in the Villa Augustin that had belonged to Kastner's uncle Franz Augustin.
[5]
Kastner's father, Emil Richard Kastner, was a
master
saddlemaker
.
[6]
His mother, Ida Amalia (nee Augustin), had been a maidservant, but in her thirties she trained as a hairstylist in order to supplement her husband's income. Kastner had a particularly close relationship with his mother. When he was living in
Leipzig
and
Berlin
, he wrote her fairly intimate letters and postcards almost every day, and overbearing mothers make regular appearances in his writings. It has been rumored that Erich Kastner's natural father was the family's
Jewish
doctor, Emil Zimmermann (1864–1953), but these rumors have never been substantiated.
[7]
Kastner wrote about his childhood in his autobiography
Als ich ein kleiner Junge war
[
de
]
(1957, translated as
When I Was a Little Boy
). According to Kastner, he did not suffer from being an
only child
, had many friends, and was not lonely or overindulged.
In 1913, Kastner entered a teacher training school in Dresden. However, he dropped out in 1916 shortly before completing the exams that would have qualified him to teach in state schools. He was drafted into the
Royal Saxon Army
in 1917 and was trained at a heavy artillery unit in Dresden. Kastner was not sent to the front, but the brutality of the military training he underwent and the death of contemporaries he experienced strongly influenced his later
antimilitarism
. The merciless drilling he was subjected to by his drill sergeant also caused a lifelong heart condition. Kastner portrays this in his poem
Sergeant Waurich
.
After the end of the war, Kastner went back to school and passed the
Abitur
exam with distinction, earning a scholarship from the city of Dresden.
Leipzig (1919–1927)
[
edit
]
In the autumn of 1919, Kastner enrolled at the
University of Leipzig
to study history, philosophy, German studies, and theater. His studies took him to
Rostock
and Berlin, and in 1925 he received a doctorate for a thesis on
Frederick the Great
and German literature. He paid for his studies by working as a journalist and critic for a newspaper, the
Neue Leipziger Zeitung
. However, his 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
, led to his dismissal in 1927. That same year, he moved to Berlin, although he continued to write for the
Neue Leipziger Zeitung
under the pseudonym "Berthold Burger" ("Bert Citizen") as a freelance correspondent. Kastner later used several other pseudonyms, including "Melchior Kurtz", "Peter Flint", and "Robert Neuner".
Berlin (1927–1933)
[
edit
]
Kastner's years in Berlin, from 1927 until the end of the
Weimar Republic
in 1933, were his most productive. He published poems, newspaper columns, articles, and reviews in many of Berlin's important periodicals. He was a regular contributor to dailies such as the
Berliner Tageblatt
and the
Vossische Zeitung
, as well as to
Die Weltbuhne
. Hans Sarkowicz and Franz Josef Gortz, the editors of his complete works (1998), list over 350 articles written between 1923 and 1933, but he must have written even more, since many texts are known to have been lost when Kastner's flat burned down during a bombing raid in February 1944.
Kastner published his first book of poems,
Herz auf Taille
, in 1928, and by 1933 he had published three more collections. His
Gebrauchslyrik
(
Lyrics for Everyday Use
) made him one of the leading figure of the
Neue Sachlichkeit
movement, which focused on using a sobering, distant and objective style to satirise contemporary society.
In the autumn of 1928, he published his best-known children's book,
Emil und die Detektive
, illustrated by
Walter Trier
. The owner of the Weltbuhne publishing house, Edith Jacobsen, had suggested the idea of writing a detective story to Kastner. The book sold two million copies in Germany alone and has since been translated into 59 languages. The novel was unusual in that, in contrast to most children's literature of the period, it is set in contemporary Berlin and not in a fairy-tale world. Kastner also refrained from overt moralising, letting the characters' actions speak for themselves. Its sequel,
Emil und die Drei Zwillinge
(1933;
Emil and the Three Twins
) takes place on the shores of the
Baltic
. The Emil books may have influenced the creation of other books in the subgenre of literature about child detectives.
Emil und die Detektive
has been adapted for the cinema five times, three of them in Germany: in 1931, 1935 (UK), 1954, 1964 (USA) and 2001.
Kastner followed this success with
Punktchen und Anton
(1931) and
Das fliegende Klassenzimmer
(1933).
Walter Trier
's illustration significantly contributed to the books' overwhelming popularity.
Das fliegende Klassenzimmer
has been adapted for the cinema several times:
in 1954
by
Kurt Hoffmann
,
in 1973
by
Werner Jacobs
and in
2003
[
de
]
by
Tomy Wigand
[
de
]
.
In 1932 Kastner wrote
Der 35. Mai (The 35th of May)
, which is set in a fantasy land entered via a wardrobe and includes futuristic features such as mobile phones.
Gerhard Lamprecht
's film version of
Emil und die Detektive
(1931) was a great success. Kastner, however, was dissatisfied with the screenplay, and that led him to become a screenwriter for the
Babelsberg
film studios.
Kastner's only major adult novel,
Fabian (Roman)
[
de
]
, was published in 1931. Kastner included rapid cuts and montages in it, in an attempt to mimic cinematic style. Fabian, an unemployed literary expert, experiences the uproariously fast pace of the times as well as the downfall of the
Weimar Republic
.
From 1927 until 1931, Kastner lived at Prager Straße 17 (today near no. 12) in Berlin–
Wilmersdorf
and after that, until February 1945, at Roscherstraße 16 in Berlin-
Charlottenburg
.
Berlin (1933–1945)
[
edit
]
Kastner was a
pacifist
and wrote for children because of his belief in the regenerative powers of youth. He
resisted
the
Nazi
regime and was one of the signatories to the
Urgent Call for Unity
. However, unlike many other authors critical of the dictatorship, Kastner did not go into exile. After the Nazis' rise to power, he visited
Merano
and Switzerland and met with exiled writers, yet he returned to Berlin, arguing that there he would be better able to chronicle events. It is probable that he also wanted to avoid abandoning his mother. His
Necessary Answer to Superfluous Questions
(
Notwendige Antwort auf uberflussige Fragen
) in
Kurz und Bundig
explains Kastner'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
interrogated Kastner several times, the national writers' guild expelled him, and the Nazis burned his books as "contrary to the German spirit" during the
book burnings
of 10 May 1933, instigated by
Joseph Goebbels
. Kastner witnessed the event in person and later wrote about it. He was denied membership of the new Nazi-controlled national writers' guild, Reichsverband deutscher Schriftsteller (RDS), because of what its officials called the "culturally
Bolshevist
attitude in his writings prior to 1933."
During the
Third Reich
, Kastner published apolitical novels such as
Drei Manner im Schnee
(
Three Men in the Snow
) (1934) in Switzerland. In 1942, he received a special exemption to write the screenplay for
Munchhausen
, using the pseudonym Berthold Burger. The film was a prestige project by
Ufa Studios
to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its establishment, an enterprise backed by Goebbels.
In 1944, Kastner's home in Berlin was destroyed during a bombing raid. In early 1945, he and others pretended that they had to travel to the rural community of
Mayrhofen
in
Tyrol
for location shooting for a (non-existent) film,
Das falsche Gesicht
(The Wrong Face). The actual purpose of the journey was to avoid the final Soviet assault on Berlin. Kastner had also received a warning that the
SS
planned to kill him and other Nazi opponents before arrival of the Soviets.
[8]
He was in Mayrhofen when the war ended. He wrote about this period in a diary published in 1961 under the title
Notabene 45
. Another edition, closer to Kastner's original notes, was published in 2006 under the title
Das Blaue Buch
(The Blue Book).
Kastner and the bombing of Dresden
[
edit
]
In his diary for 1945, published many years later, Kastner describes his shock at arriving in Dresden shortly after the bombing of the city in
World War II
(February 1945) and finding it a pile of ruins in which he could recognize none of the streets or landmarks among which he had spent his childhood.
His autobiography
Als ich ein kleiner Junge war
includes a lament for Dresden (quoted from the English translation,
When I Was a Little Boy
): "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."
Munich (1945–1974)
[
edit
]
After the end of the war, Kastner moved to
Munich
, where he became culture editor for the
Neue Zeitung
and publisher of
Pinguin
[
de
]
, a magazine for children and young people. He was also active in literary
cabaret
, in productions at the Schaubude (1945?1948) and
Die kleine Freiheit
(after 1951), and in radio. During this time, he wrote a number of
skits
, songs, audio plays,
speeches
, and essays about
National Socialism
, the war years, and the stark realities of life in post-war Germany. Most notable among these works are
Marschlied 1945
and
Deutsches Ringelspiel
. He also continued to write children's books, including
Die Konferenz der Tiere
[
de
]
(
The Animals' Conference
), a pacifist satire in which the world's animals unite to successfully force humans to disarm and make peace. This picture book was made into
an animated film
[
de
]
by Curt Linda. Kastner also renewed his collaboration with
Edmund Nick
, whom he had met in Leipzig in 1929, when Nick, then Head of the Music Department at Radio Silesia, wrote the music for Kastner's radio play
Leben in dieser Zeit
. Nick, now the Musical Director at the Schaubude, set more than 60 of Kastner's songs to music.
Kastner's optimism in the immediate post-war era gave way to resignation as Germans in the West attempted to normalize their lives following the economic reforms of the early 1950s and the ensuing "economic miracle" ("
Wirtschaftswunder
"). He became further disillusioned as Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer
remilitarized West Germany, made it a member of
NATO
, and rearmed it for possible military conflict with the
Warsaw Pact
. Kastner remained a pacifist and spoke out at anti-militarist demonstrations against the
nuclear weapons
armement of West Germany. Later, he also took firm stand against the
Vietnam War
. Kastner began to publish less and less, partly because of his increasing alcoholism. He did not join any of the post-war literary movements in West Germany, and in the 1950s and 1960s he came to be perceived mainly as an author of children's books.
His novel
Fabian
was made into a movie in 1980, as were several of his children's books. The most popular of these adaptations are
Disney
's 1961 American film
The Parent Trap
starring
Hayley Mills
and its
1998 remake
starring
Lindsay Lohan
, both based on his novel
Das doppelte Lottchen
(
Lisa and Lottie
). In 1960, Kastner received the
Hans Christian Andersen Award
for
Als ich ein kleiner Junge war
, his autobiography.
[2]
[3]
The English translation by Florence and Isabel McHugh, published as
When I Was a Little Boy
in 1959, won the
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
in 1961.
Kastner received several other awards, including the
Filmband in Gold
for best screenplay for the German film version of
Das doppelte Lottchen
(1950), the literary prize of the city of Munich in 1956, and the
Georg Buchner Prize
in 1957.
[9]
The government of West Germany honored Kastner with its order of merit, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (
Federal Cross of Merit
), in 1959. In 1968 he received the
Lessing-Ring
[
de
]
together with the literary prize of the German
Masonic Order
.
In 1951, Kastner was elected President of the
PEN
Center of West Germany, and he remained in office until 1961. In 1965 he became President Emeritus. He was also instrumental in the founding of the
Internationale Jugendbibliothek
, a library in Munich that collects and preserves children's and youth books from all over the world. In 1953 he was founding member of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People).
Kastner 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 Kastner, who was born in 1957. Kastner frequently read from his works. In the 1920s, he recorded some of his poems of social criticism and in some of the films based on his books he performed as the narrator, as he did for the first audio production of
Punktchen und Anton
. Other recordings for
Deutsche Grammophon
include poems, epigrams, and his version of the folk tale
Till Eulenspiegel
. He also read in theaters, such as the
Cuvillies Theatre
in Munich, and for the radio, for which he read
Als ich ein kleiner Junge war
and other works.
Kastner died of esophageal cancer on 29 July 1974 in the Neuperlach Hospital in Munich. He 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 name. Many streets in Germany
[10]
and the asteroid
12318 Kastner
are named after him.
[11]
Works
[
edit
]
A list of his works under their German titles, arranged by their German publication dates:
- Weihnachtslied, chemisch gereinigt
, 1927
- Herz auf Taille
, 1928
- Emil und die Detektive
, 1929 (
Emil and the Detectives
)
- Larm im Spiegel
[
de
]
1929
- Ein Mann gibt Auskunft
, 1930
- Punktchen und Anton
, 1931 (
Dot and Anton
)
- Fabian. Die Geschichte eines Moralisten
, 1931
- Gesang zwischen den Stuhlen
, 1932
- Der 35. Mai
,
1932 (
The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas
)
- Emil und die Drei Zwillinge
[
de
]
1935 (
Emil and the Three Twins
)
- Das fliegende Klassenzimmer
, 1933 (
The Flying Classroom
)
- Drei Manner im Schnee
[
de
]
, 1934 (
Three Men in the Snow
)
- Die verschwundene Miniatur
[
de
]
, 1935 (
The Missing Miniature
)
- Doktor Erich Kastners Lyrische Hausapotheke
[
de
]
, 1936 (
Doctor Erich Kastner's Lyrical Medicine Chest
)
- Georg und die Zwischenfalle
, (aka
Der kleine Grenzverkehr
) 1938 (
A Salzburg Comedy
)
- Das doppelte Lottchen
, 1949 (
Lisa and Lottie
; republished as
The Parent Trap
in the United Kingdom and Australia)
- Die Konferenz der Tiere
[
de
]
, 1949 (
The Animals' Conference
)
- Die 13 Monate
[
de
]
, 1955
- Als ich ein kleiner Junge war
[
de
]
1957 (
When I Was a Little Boy
)
- Das Schwein beim Friseur
1963
- Der kleine Mann
[
de
]
1963 (
The Little Man
)
- Der kleine Mann und die kleine Miss
[
de
]
1967 (
The Little Man and the Little Miss
)
- Mein Onkel Franz
1969
- Sylvia List (Editor):
Das große Erich Kastner Buch
, with an introduction by
Hermann Kesten
, Atrium Verlag, Zurich 2002,
ISBN
978-3-85535-945-5
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Kastner, Erich (6 November 2014).
"
The Parent Trap
"
.
Pushkin Press
.
- ^
a
b
"Hans Christian Andersen Awards"
.
International Board on Books for Young People
(IBBY).
- ^
a
b
"Erich Kastner"
by Eva Glistrup, pp. 26?27.
"Half a Century of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards"
by Eva Glistrup, pp. 14?21
The Hans Christian Andersen Awards, 1956?2002
.
IBBY
.
Gyldendal
. 2002. Hosted by
Austrian Literature Online
.
- ^
"Erich Kastner"
.
Nomination Database
. Nobel Foundation
. Retrieved
19 April
2017
.
- ^
O'Brien, Andrea (2015).
"Erich Kastner Museum im Literaturhaus Villa Augustin"
[Erich Kastner Museum in the Literaturhaus Villa Augustin].
Erich Kastner Viertel
(in German). Archived from
the original
on 10 April 2021
. Retrieved
17 July
2019
.
Erich Kastner Museum
, die Moglichkeit, das ambitionierte Literaturhaus-Projekt im ehemaligen Wohnhaus von Erich Kastners Onkel Franz Augustin zu konzipieren.
- ^
Larson, Katherine Sue Gelus (1968).
Through the Looking Glass of Erich Kastner: Culture and Crisis in Germany
(Thesis). Stanford University, Department of History.
- ^
Hanuschek, Sven (1999).
Keiner blickt dir hinter das Gesicht. Das Leben Erich Kastners
[
Nobody looks behind the face. The life of Erich Kastner
] (in German). Munich:
Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag
. p. 46.
ISBN
978-3-423-30871-7
.
- ^
"Lugen als Uberlebensstrategie"
by Michael Watzke and Claus-Stephan Rehfeld,
Deutschlandfunk Kultur
, 26 June 2015 (in German)
- ^
"Erich Kastner"
.
Deutsche Akademie fur Sprache und Dichtung
. Retrieved
12 November
2023
.
- ^
"Erich-Kastner-Straße" in Germany
, Postleitzahlen Deutschland [Postal codes in Germany]
- ^
"(12318) Kastner = 1992 HD7"
,
Minor Planet Center
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Volker Ladenthin
[
de
]
, "Erich Kastner, the Innovator: Modern Books for Modern Kids", Volker Ladenthin and Susanne Hucklenbroich-Ley, ed.,
Erich Kastner Jahrbuch
vol. 3, Wurzburg 2004, pp. 19?26
External links
[
edit
]
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