Vienna (OTS) – July 29th marks the 50th anniversary of Erich Kästner’s death. Ö1 remembers the children’s book author, poet and novelist with “Thoughts for the Day” (July 22nd – 27th) and a “Radiokolleg” (July 29th – August 1st).
Michael Hammerschmid, author of poems for children and adults, prose, radio plays and essays on literature, takes a very personal look at the life and work of Erich Kästner in “Thoughts for the Day”: “Don’t let your childhood be driven out of you!” from Monday, July 22nd to Saturday, July 27th at 6:57 a.m. on Ö1.
“Erich Kästner – Classics with a twist” is the title of the four-part “Radiokolleg” from Monday, July 29th to Thursday, August 1st from 9:05 a.m. on Ö1. On July 29th it’s about “Little People’s Child – The Biography of Erich Kästner”. He is world-famous above all for his children’s books. But Erich Kästner was also a politically aware novelist for adults and a lively and original poet. The popularity of his work, translated into 59 languages, remains unbroken to this day. “Left, where the heart beats – Kästner politically” is the topic on July 30th. Kästner, anti-fascist and anti-militarist, saw himself as a democratic socialist throughout his life. According to his own information, he voted Social Democratic during the Weimar Republic. In 1932, together with Heinrich Mann and Albert Einstein, he advocated a merger between the SPD and KPD in order to prevent the Nazis from seizing power – in vain. In the 1950s and 60s, the writer campaigned against German rearmament and the Vietnam War. “The children’s book classic” will be the focus on July 31st. Together with Astrid Lindgren, Otfried Preußler and Michael Ende, Erich Kästner is one of the children’s book classics of the 20th century, on an international scale. The hairdresser’s son from Dresden achieved a sensational success in 1929 with “Emil and the Detectives”. This was followed by other bestsellers and long-sellers such as “Pünktchen und Anton”, “The Flying Classroom” and “The Double Lottchen”, which still find an enthusiastic audience today, and not just among young people. “Kästner as a poet and novelist” will be on August 1st. Novels like “Fabian” and especially “Three Men in the Snow” were and are considered by many German scholars to be too catchy to be taken seriously. That is changing recently. “Fabian” in particular – first published in its unabridged original version in 2013 under the title “The Walk to the Dogs” – is now considered one of the “greatest urban novels of the Weimar Republic” (FAZ). The audience has never shared literary scholars’ reservations about Kästner’s storytelling. The large number of Kästner film adaptations also shows this. Erich Kästner has long been considered a classic of Weimar modernism in the field of poetry. Poems such as “The Handstand on the Loreley” or “Sachliche Romanze” are considered part of the canon of German poetry. The Ö1 program in detail is available at https://oe1.orf.at/.
Questions & Contact:
ORF Radio public relations
Isabella Henke
(01) 87 878/18050
isabella.henke@orf.at