Brush up your Kästner
Sep. 3rd, 2009 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakA recent conversation in comments induced a wave of nostalgia directed at Erich Kästner, one of the 20th century's most enjoyable writers. He's responsible for some of the most beloved children's books (several of which, as I belatedy found out, were aquired by Disney, and, err, Disneyfied - never mind Marvel, the Mouse got its paws on Kästner, zomg!), popularizing the "children detectives" idea, and contemporary settings. Emil und die Detektive, Pünktchen und Anton, Das doppelte Lottchen are the most popular ones. Emil und die Detektive was so popular in Germany that it was the only one of Kästner's novels not to be forbidden by the Nazis. All of Kästner's other works were; he was issued what amounted to a gag order, a Berufsverbot, and could only work under pseudonyms or by publishing in Switzerland. He did not emigrate but remained in Germany, however, which meant he was also the only one of the writers whose books were burned in 1933 who was physically present (but not assaulted, thankfully) at one of the burnings. To return to Emil und die Detektive, this was filmed several times as most of Kästner's books; the very first version, from 1931, had its script written by young Billy Wilder, who I hear had something of a career overseas later. :)
YouTube doesn't have an excerpt of this version. But it has some other Kästner stuff. First of all, have a look at the man himself, and hear his voice. Here's the epilogue of the 1954 version of Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (directed by Kurt Hoffmann), which features Kästner, as the narrator, encountering two of his characters in the Hofgarten of Munich. (Where Kästner lived after WW II.) Even if you don't understand German, listen to the sound; Kästner had a great voice, and recorded a lot of his work.
Now, aside from children's novels, Kästner is also famous for his wonderfully witty and still eminently quotable poetry. (Though it was neglected for a few decades during and post WWII before being rediscovered in the 70s.) He was a firm pacifist, and prone to take a rather jaundiced view on romance, so you can bet on your avarage Kästner poem either making fun of the military, attacking social injustice or being unsentimental love. Here's one set to music by Kurt Weill in ye olde Weimar Republic days (I hear Mr. Weill later had a career overseas as well...):
That was Der Abschiedsbrief, Rita-Lucia Schneider singing. Kästner's most famous poem about the falling apart of an affair, which manages the incredibly tough balance act between on the one hand being unsentimental but on the other full of sympathy for both partners, is Sachliche Romanze, here recited by Kästner himself (again, great voice, hadn't he?):
And to round it off with a poem attacking the military build-up in Germany, Kennst du das Land, wo die Kanonen blühn? (the title, "do you know the country where canons bloom?" is a parody of a poem written by Goethe, Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn? - "do you know the country of lemon trees?" - which was about Italy). That's the sort of stuff Kästner was given a gag order for, here presented by Matthias Habich:
Back to the movies. From 1933-1945, Kästner now and then did have other sources of income than Emil royalties and Swiss publications. He worked for the UFA once, under the pseudonym of Berthold Bürger ("Berthold Citizen"); he wrote the script for the 1943 movie Münchhausen, which was the third film to be made in colour in Germany and the UFA's big 25th anniversary project. It's a fantasy movie, with a modern day framing narration (the Baron Münchhausen we meet early on, supposedly a descendant of the legendary Münchhausen, turns out to be the genuine article in the end, whom Cagliostro has made immortal, starring most of the big stars still in Germany at the time. Shezan once expressed surprise to me that the modern day scenes do not contain a single reference to the Nazis; this actually wasn't unusual for most German films made between 1933-1945 if they were set in present day, and it got only more extreme the worse the war was for Germany. The films presented an alternate reality in which nobody ever greets anyone else with "Heil Hitler", nobody wears uniform and there certainly is no war. Take the extreme case of Unter den Brücken by Helmut Käutner, which is a movie shot between May and October 1944. It's set in and around Berlin and is a charming love story, a triangle featuring two boatsmen and a girl (where all three participants end up with each other). In 1944, it was hard to find a bridge in Berlin still standing, let alone several, and most of the action of this film takes place around bridges over the Spree, the river running through Berlin. Yet in the Berlin of this film there are no ruins, no sign of bomb attacks at all, nothing. Truly, German movieland was an Alternate Universe of its own. Back to Münchhausen: YouTube has several scenes from the film subtitled in English. The one I've picked shows Münchhausen (Hans Albers) with Catherine the Great (Brigitte Horney). The first time Münchhausen met Catherine, he didn't know who she was as she was in disguise as a servant girl - which is why he calls her Käthchen - , but now they're reunited and the truth is out. The interesting thing here is that you have reversed conventional gender dynamics; she's the one rushing off to serious business with the intention to keeping him around for fun in between:
Despite not emigrating, Kästner was one of the very few German authors to remain extremely popular in Israel during the 50s; to my knowledge, he is so till this day. Over here, we have many schools named after him, films still continue to be made based on his novels, and most caberet artists use one or several of his poems in their programm. I'll conclude with another poem of his, recited by himself: Stiller Besuch, which is autobiographical and about his relationship with his mother:
YouTube doesn't have an excerpt of this version. But it has some other Kästner stuff. First of all, have a look at the man himself, and hear his voice. Here's the epilogue of the 1954 version of Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (directed by Kurt Hoffmann), which features Kästner, as the narrator, encountering two of his characters in the Hofgarten of Munich. (Where Kästner lived after WW II.) Even if you don't understand German, listen to the sound; Kästner had a great voice, and recorded a lot of his work.
Now, aside from children's novels, Kästner is also famous for his wonderfully witty and still eminently quotable poetry. (Though it was neglected for a few decades during and post WWII before being rediscovered in the 70s.) He was a firm pacifist, and prone to take a rather jaundiced view on romance, so you can bet on your avarage Kästner poem either making fun of the military, attacking social injustice or being unsentimental love. Here's one set to music by Kurt Weill in ye olde Weimar Republic days (I hear Mr. Weill later had a career overseas as well...):
That was Der Abschiedsbrief, Rita-Lucia Schneider singing. Kästner's most famous poem about the falling apart of an affair, which manages the incredibly tough balance act between on the one hand being unsentimental but on the other full of sympathy for both partners, is Sachliche Romanze, here recited by Kästner himself (again, great voice, hadn't he?):
And to round it off with a poem attacking the military build-up in Germany, Kennst du das Land, wo die Kanonen blühn? (the title, "do you know the country where canons bloom?" is a parody of a poem written by Goethe, Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn? - "do you know the country of lemon trees?" - which was about Italy). That's the sort of stuff Kästner was given a gag order for, here presented by Matthias Habich:
Back to the movies. From 1933-1945, Kästner now and then did have other sources of income than Emil royalties and Swiss publications. He worked for the UFA once, under the pseudonym of Berthold Bürger ("Berthold Citizen"); he wrote the script for the 1943 movie Münchhausen, which was the third film to be made in colour in Germany and the UFA's big 25th anniversary project. It's a fantasy movie, with a modern day framing narration (the Baron Münchhausen we meet early on, supposedly a descendant of the legendary Münchhausen, turns out to be the genuine article in the end, whom Cagliostro has made immortal, starring most of the big stars still in Germany at the time. Shezan once expressed surprise to me that the modern day scenes do not contain a single reference to the Nazis; this actually wasn't unusual for most German films made between 1933-1945 if they were set in present day, and it got only more extreme the worse the war was for Germany. The films presented an alternate reality in which nobody ever greets anyone else with "Heil Hitler", nobody wears uniform and there certainly is no war. Take the extreme case of Unter den Brücken by Helmut Käutner, which is a movie shot between May and October 1944. It's set in and around Berlin and is a charming love story, a triangle featuring two boatsmen and a girl (where all three participants end up with each other). In 1944, it was hard to find a bridge in Berlin still standing, let alone several, and most of the action of this film takes place around bridges over the Spree, the river running through Berlin. Yet in the Berlin of this film there are no ruins, no sign of bomb attacks at all, nothing. Truly, German movieland was an Alternate Universe of its own. Back to Münchhausen: YouTube has several scenes from the film subtitled in English. The one I've picked shows Münchhausen (Hans Albers) with Catherine the Great (Brigitte Horney). The first time Münchhausen met Catherine, he didn't know who she was as she was in disguise as a servant girl - which is why he calls her Käthchen - , but now they're reunited and the truth is out. The interesting thing here is that you have reversed conventional gender dynamics; she's the one rushing off to serious business with the intention to keeping him around for fun in between:
Despite not emigrating, Kästner was one of the very few German authors to remain extremely popular in Israel during the 50s; to my knowledge, he is so till this day. Over here, we have many schools named after him, films still continue to be made based on his novels, and most caberet artists use one or several of his poems in their programm. I'll conclude with another poem of his, recited by himself: Stiller Besuch, which is autobiographical and about his relationship with his mother:
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 07:25 pm (UTC)