By John PhillipsLIFE Photo Collection
Erich Kästner is remembered as one of Germany’s most popular writers thanks to his astute social commentary, his satirical poems, and, most of all, his widely beloved children’s books.
"Emil und die Detektive", D 1931 (1931)German Federal Archives
Emil and the Detectives (1929) is a national and international classic of children’s literature, translated into around 60 languages worldwide. It follows Emil and a gang of Berlin children in their daring pursuit of the man who has robbed Emil on a train.
The book’s enduring significance has much to do with its dark and gritty elements, which captured the imaginations of children and adults. Emil lives in the provincial town of Neustadt, and is raised by his hardworking mother. His father is dead. The Berlin he encounters is contemporary and realistic, populated by questionable characters, rather than the idealized landscapes more common in children’s fantasy at the time.
Kästner’s blend of adventurous imagination with slightly brutal realism owed much to his own experiences in 20th century Germany, from Dresden through to Munich, as Europe and the world changed around him. Here, you can follow Kästner’s journey through some of his most important places.
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1) Äußere Neustadt, Dresden
Born in 1899, Kästner grew up on Königsbrücker Straße in Dresden’s ‘Outer New Town’. At the time, it was a fairly industrial part of the city, defined by its alum boilery, and also the factory where the first milk chocolate was made. Today, it is thriving and fashionable, because much of its original 18th century architecture survived the 1945 Dresden Bombing, but a young man of intellect in Kästner’s time would have to leave the area to find his educational fulfilment.
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2) University of Leipzig
Kästner earned a scholarship from his school studies in Dresden and, in 1919, went to study in Leipzig. He enrolled in history, philosophy, and theatre, and earned a doctorate in German Literature in 1923. The original university buildings were demolished in 1968. Kästner funded his studies with journalistic work, but his academic career was cut short in 1927 when he was dismissed for publishing an erotic poem, ‘Evening Song of the Chamber Virtuoso.’ He left Leipzig for Berlin that year.
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3) Prager Straße 17, Berlin
It was in his first years in Berlin, living on the Prager Straße, that Kästner wrote and published Emil and the Detectives as well as reportedly over 350 articles for daily newspapers. From 1927 until the end of the Weimar Republic in 1933, while living here, Kästner was at his most productive.
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4) Roscherstraße 16, Berlin-Charlottenberg
Kästner was an opponent of the Nazi regime, believing in the goodness of youth as a kind of redemptive force. He associated with radical writers, and visited some exiled intellectuals in Italy and Switzerland. But, from 1933, he stationed himself in Berlin on Roscherstraße in order to better observe and chronicle events. This meant he was subjected to Gestapo interrogations, and his books were burned. Of his many publications, only Emil survived the Nazi ban.
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5) St George’s, Bogenhausen, Munich
Returning to Dresden at the end of the war in 1945, Kästner was devastated by the effects of the bombing. He wrote, “In a thousand years was her beauty built, in one night was it utterly destroyed.” He couldn’t endure it, and instead lived out his life post-war in Munich writing plays and taking part in cabarets. He died, much celebrated and respected, in 1975, and is buried here, on the banks of the river Isar.
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6) Kästner Museum, Dresden
“I was born in the most beautiful city in the world,” Kästner wrote. His heart belonged to his home of Dresden, though his life and the war took him elsewhere. Today, the Kästner Museum stands in Villa Augustin in his first city, housed in what was once the home of his Uncle, on Villa Augustin. It commemorates the life and the work of a truly beloved and important figure in Germany’s literary history.
