Whether books and texts by the author and poet Erich Kästner, who would have been 125 years old this year, are read in school lessons in Rhineland-Palatinate depends solely on the teachers. This was the result of an inquiry from RHEINPFALZ on SUNDAY.
According to the Ministry of Education, there is no specific compulsory reading in German in Rhineland-Palatinate. “The teachers decide independently which reading material is suitable for their class and for their course in the sense of individual support,” says Mainz. Suggestion lists for reading have therefore disappeared from the curricula.
“But that doesn’t mean that working with Erich Kästner wouldn’t be possible,” says Ralf Hoffmann, education officer at the Rhineland-Palatinate Association of Philologists. In grades 5 to 10, the focus is on poetry, for which Kästner can be “selected as an example”. However, Hoffmann also confirms that this is at the discretion of the teacher.
According to the education officer, 14 important authors of the 20th century are named in the upper grades who can be the subject of lessons; Erich Kästner is not among them. “But it would be possible to read it, because you could use it, for example, when dealing with 20th century literature or when dealing with certain types of text,” says Hoffmann. Only Kästner’s poem “Do you know the country where the cannons bloom?” is mentioned as a recommendation for interdisciplinary work (with history or social studies).
You can read an interview from RHEINPFALZ on SUNDAY with the Kästner expert and former German teacher in Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate Dirk Walter here: Erich and the German teachers – an interview about Kästner in the classroom