Erich Kastner

Emil und die Detektive

When they meet for the first time at summer camp, two ten-year-old girls discover they are twins and plot to bring their divorced parents together again.

Lisa and Lottie

Going to the Dogs is set in Berlin after the crash of 1929 and before the Nazi takeover, years of rising unemployment and financial collapse. The moralist in question is Jakob Fabian, “aged thirty-two, profession variable, at present advertising copywriter . . . weak heart, brown hair,” a young man with an excellent education but permanently condemned to a low-paid job without security in the short or the long run. What’s to be done? Fabian and friends make the best of it—they go to work though they may be laid off at any time, and in the evenings they go to the cabarets and try to make it with girls on the make, all the while making a lot of sharp-sighted and sharp-witted observations about politics, life, and love, or what may be. Not that it makes a difference. Workers keep losing work to new technologies while businessmen keep busy making money, and everyone who can goes out to dance clubs and sex clubs or engages in marathon bicycle events, since so long as there’s hope of running into the right person or (even) doing the right thing, well—why stop? Going to the Dogs, in the words of introducer Rodney Livingstone, “brilliantly renders with tangible immediacy the last frenetic years [in Germany] before 1933.” It is a book for our time too.

The Story of a Moralist

Going to the Dogs

'Password Emil!' If Mrs Tischbein had known the amazing adventures her son Emil would have in Berlin, she'd never have let him go. Emil is excited to be taking the train on his own for the first time. He doesn't like the look of his fellow passenger, the man in the bowler hat. Emil will just have to keep his wits about him and his money in his pocket. But Emil falls asleep and when he wakes up the man in the bowler hat is gone - and so is the money! Emil is determined to get it back. He teams upwith a gang of young detectives and so begins a hair-raising chase across Berlin to catch the dirty rotten thief...

Emil and the Detectives

Emil, Gustav, and a group of young detectives outwit criminals and the police when they comb the city in their quest to recover Emil's stolen money.

On the train, his fellow passengers are impressed with how polite and grown-up Emil is, and the man in the bowler hat offers him some chocolate—but Emil keeps checking his coat pocket, where he’s pinned the money that he is taking to his grandmother. Soon, though, Emil finds himself getting sleepy . . . and the next thing he knows, the man in the bowler hat is gone— and so is the money! With the help of some new friends Emil becomes a detective and tracks the thief through the city. Filled with enduring themes of leadership, courage, and teamwork, and the delightful illustrations of Walter Trier, Emil and the Detectives is a rollicking, heartwarming tale come alive.

Az Eltunt Miniatur

Till Eulenspiegel

Erich Kästner

HOE GEVAARLIJK KAN EEN ROMAN ZIJN? Naar de haaien is een roman die op grootse wijze de verzenuwde periode tussen de beurscrash van 1929 en de definitieve machtsovername van de nazis in 1933 vastlegt. In deze jaren van armoede en gebrek doolt de werkloze Fabian door Berlijn, een stad die zich zowel op politiek als erotisch vlak in een crisissituatie bevindt. Het boek werd in 1931 in Duitsland verkort, gecensureerd en onder een andere titel op de markt gebracht (Fabian: het verhaal van een moralist), om twee jaar later op de brandstapel te belanden: de nazis achtten ook de gemuilkorfde editie obsceen, decadent en getuigen van een gedegenereerde geest. Na ruim tachtig jaar is nu voor het eerst de roman te lezen zoals Kästner die bedoeld heeft. Erich Kästner (1899-1974) was schrijver en dichter en brak internationaal door met zijn veelgeprezen kinderboek Emiel en zijn detectives, dat in meer dan 50 landen vertaald is en waarvan alleen al in Duitsland 2 miljoen exemplaren werden verkocht. `Crisis is het sleutelwoord in Naar de haaien, want de crisis van de hoofdpersoon weerspiegelt die van de wereldeconomie en het oude Europa. Juist dat maakt Kästners roman anno 2014 tot een verbluffend actueel boek Pieter Steinz `Afschuw en spot, iets wat de boekverbranders, ambtenaren en achtelozen uit dit tijdperk onbegrijpelijk vonden. De manier waarop Kästner zijn walging en minachting verwoordt is zeldzaam in de Duitse literatuur Der Spiegel

Naar de haaien

Working in partnership with the National Theatre, these new playscripts bring the theatre alive in the classroom. Each play has been carefully selected to ensure maximum impact and relevance to students, while the activities and teaching support are underpinned by National Theatre strategiesso that teachers can feel confident using these approaches. Vibrant production images and the "Making the play" section show how the play is brought to life on stage while the activities combine a focus on English skills with the play as a perfomance.Set in the 1920s, Emil and the Detectives tells the tale of Emil, a young boy sent alone by train to Berlin. Excited to be travelling on his own for the first time, he becomes suspicious of a fellow passenger who later robs him. Not to be outdone, Emil teams up with a band of children turneddetectives and sets out to track the robber and get his money back, leading to a hair-raising chase across Berlin.

Erich Kastner

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