Erich Kästner zum 50. Todesjahr: Zwischen Kinderbuchautor und Politsatiriker – ein Leben voller Widersprüche

In the organizer's words:

Lecture and reading by and with Ursula Zierlinger and Hans-Jürgen Lenhart

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Erich Kästner's death, but he is still here to stay. The film adaptations of his books are still being shown on television, and for some he has become an enduring classic of children's literature.

For others, he is a politically committed satirist against the National Socialists, whose warning voice was heard early on. Even today, some of his texts seem like commentaries on the resurgence of neo-Nazism.

However, none of this completes his overall picture, which shows a contradictory man. Ostracized by the Nazis, he nevertheless wrote for the UFA screenplays, and after the war he was a prominent pacifist on the one hand, but increasingly resigned on the other. Although he became increasingly well-known thanks to the film adaptations of his books, his productivity declined significantly at the same time.

In contrast to the adults in his books, he attributed better common sense to children, but as a father himself, he had a child outside of his long-term relationship. He was also contradictory in his position towards women. On the one hand, he could be seen as a mama's boy, on the other he was a womanizer, never married throughout his life.

Ursula Zierlinger, renowned Germanist from Hanau, and the Frankfurt writer Hans-Jürgen Lenhart want to look behind the image of one of the world's best-known German authors of the 20th century, combined with many texts that fit the different aspects of his personality and his work.

Admission (Box Office): 8 € / With Kulturpass Frankfurt 1 €