As of: February 23, 2024 6:00 a.m
Creator of magnificent children’s books, gifted self-promoter, humorist, son of a helicopter mother, plagued by writer’s block and alcohol problems: Erich Kästner was a man full of contradictions. He was born in Dresden 125 years ago today.
Erich Kästner loved role-playing games. His texts are full of doubles and mirror images, swapped identities, disguises and invisibility cloaks, of childish adults or sensible children. And he himself also hid behind many masks.
“With your permission, I will split myself into two people, both of whom bear my name. So the journalist Erich Kästner will now try to give you a picture of the writer Erich Kästner,” he said in a radio broadcast in 1956. He wanted to make fun of the fact that he couldn’t be pigeonholed.
AUDIO: “The Double Erich”: Tobias Lehmkuhl’s non-fiction book about Kästner (55 min)
Kästner himself fine-tuned his image
Kästner himself did a lot to ensure that his private life was not discussed publicly. “His partner wrote his first biography and there is nothing in it that he wouldn’t have liked,” says Sven Hanuschek, professor of German studies in Munich and editor of several Kästner works. His extensive biography of the writer is entitled “Nobody Looked Behind the Face.”
Kästner’s conflict and contradictions, his feelings of guilt, writer’s block and alcohol problems find no place there. The catastrophes of the 20th century have not left him unscathed, and his role in the Third Reich is just as ambiguous as his treatment of women.
He becomes a model boy under his over-ambitious mother
Erich Kästner was born in a Dresden tenement in 1899 as the only son of an extremely ambitious helicopter mother. The child has no choice but to become a model boy. He always has the best grades, is hardworking and well-mannered. Kästner’s father, Emil, has no say in this family. Ida even tells her son that Emil is not his father.
Following his mother’s wishes, Kästner was accepted into the teachers’ college at the age of 14. After completing his training, however, Kästner realized that he was not suitable for this job. He completed his high school diploma and studied German in Leipzig. At the same time, he began working as a journalist with an enormous output – often under a pseudonym so that his colleagues wouldn’t be jealous.
A love life like a “wild rabbit”
After a painful separation from the Dresden chemist Ilse Julius, a very emancipated young woman who he describes in his poem “The Objective Romance”, he does not enter into a committed relationship for a long time. He constantly has new affairs, often several in parallel, and lies and cheats on his wives.
“There’s a letter to a friend that’s almost apologetic. He’s a wild rabbit, he’s sorry, but he can’t get out of it,” explains Kästner expert Hanuschek. In any case, he has the closest relationship with the “dear, good mother” in Dresden. Kästner writes to his mother almost every day and sends his dirty laundry.
Further information
The autobiographical story of an unemployed German scholar who wanders through Berlin in the late 1920s. more
In 1927 Erich Kästner moves to Berlin. He manages to become a writer for all major newspapers in record time and also writes for new media, radio and film. His first volume of poetry, “Heart on Waist,” was also a great success. Kästner sees himself as a practical poet and wants to write simply and clearly.
The 30-year-old made his big breakthrough in 1929 with his first children’s book: “Emil and the Detectives” became a global success. Kästner not only uses the modern city as the setting for his novel, he also uses the blunt language spoken on the streets of Berlin. His heroes may be well-behaved model boys, but at the same time they are adventurous and fearless, and they stick together. So it’s no wonder that children and adults alike love this encouraging book.
Further information
Erich Kästner already changed his perspective: “When you lie lengthwise in the room, the world takes on a completely different face.” more
Kästner: Eyewitness to the book burning of his works
When Hitler came to power, Kästner’s career ended abruptly. He himself was an eyewitness when his works were thrown into the flames during the book burning on Berlin’s Opera Square. “I stood in front of the university, wedged between students in SA uniforms, saw our books flying into the flickering flames and heard the corny tirades of the clever little liar. Funeral weather hung over the city. (…) It was disgusting.”
The writer is now only allowed to publish abroad. He is under surveillance and is arrested twice by the Gestapo.
I walked the streets as a living corpse, a banned, an erased writer, insulted, spied on, and every hour of every day at my own risk. Erich Kästner after his writing ban by the Nazis
However, according to his diary published by Hanuschek, it couldn’t have been that bad. Under a false name, Kästner writes comedies for stage and film, enjoys champagne, lobster, orchids and his mother’s clean laundry.
Further information
On May 10, 1933, the Nazis began the “Against the Un-German Spirit” campaign. Hundreds of books, mostly by Jewish authors, are banned and publicly burned. more
Kästner’s film causes Hitler to have a tantrum
With special permission from Goebbels, Kästner was supposed to write a script in 1943 for the big anniversary film for Ufa’s 25th birthday. “Münchhausen” is the most expensive film of the Third Reich. The film is also intended to show war-weary people what the country is still capable of.
“That of course corresponds to the logic of perseverance,” says Hanuschek. “On the other hand, there are sequences in it that are just pretty crazy. So there’s a Cagliostro figure, which for me is a Hitler caricature,” the historian continues. Hitler is said to have promptly thrown a tantrum when he saw it. A total ban follows.
After the war he becomes a peace activist
In the last weeks of the war, Kästner was able to accompany a film team to Austria with fake papers. There he meets a concentration camp survivor who tells him in detail about Auschwitz. His report about the unimaginable atrocities affects Kästner deeply. Writing a novel about the Third Reich is no longer an option for him.
In the post-war period, Kästner reported on the Nuremberg trials as a journalist and wrote educational texts for cabarets. He also takes to the streets with young people to protest against rearmament or nuclear weapons.
Kästner also continued to write for children, “The Animal Conference” and “The Double Lottchen”, his greatest success after the war. He repeatedly visits school classes. He sees hope for a better world in the children.
Don’t let your childhood drive you away. Only those who grow up and remain children are human. Quote from Erich Kästner
The fact that his last years are rather dull is also due to his stressful private life between two women in Berlin and Munich. Kästner falls ill with tuberculosis, drinks more and more and writes less and less.
On July 29, 1974, Erich Kästner died of cancer at the age of 75. It’s not just his children’s books and poems that have survived him. Much of what she wrote about people’s ability to be seduced also remains relevant.
Further information
Dominik Graf’s 2021 new production of the Erich Kästner novel with Tom Schilling and Saskia Rosendahl is a dance on the volcano. more
75 Min
“Fourth Wing” turned Daniel and Katharina into fantasy fans. Tobi Schlegl talks about writing and saving. 75 mins
This topic in the program:
NDR Culture | The Morning | 02/23/2024 | 8:20 a.m