The Conference of Animals (novel)

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The Conference of Animals is a children's book by the German writer Erich Kästner , published in 1949. It is Kästner's first novel after the Second World War and is about the representatives of all animal species on earth who, due to the political failure of humans, convene an international conference in order to achieve world peace .

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When the lion Alois, the elephant Oskar and the giraffe Leopold read in the newspaper that the 86th International Conference of the People was dissolved without the government representatives having found a solution to the problems they had caused such as wars, famine and environmental degradation, The three animals decide it is time to take the initiative. They notify all animals around the globe that four weeks later there will be a conference in the Animal Towerwill be held. Animal delegates from all over the world and even the animals from the picture books will travel to the conference. In addition, a human child from each continent is invited, as the animals consider the children innocent of the problems of mankind and want to include them in their plans to improve the world.

Another conference of the people in Cape Town is taking place at the same time . The animals want to bring about an agreement of all countries and take unusual measures: First they organize an incursion of rodents into the conference building of the people and thus destroy all files that they consider to be an obstacle to an agreement. They demand an immediate peaceful settlement from the people. After people have brought in copies of all files without responding to the animals' demands, swarms of moths fly into the conference room and devour everyone's uniforms, leaving them naked. When this problem can also be overcome by humans, the animals resort to their last measure and kidnap the children from all families in the world. You will keep them safe in hiding places where animals will take care of them while they play happily with each other. However, it makes adults realize how empty a childless world is and the need to create a better future for the sake of children. All heads of state sign a treaty stating that all borders will be lifted, the military and all firearms and explosive weapons abolished, and a guarantee that all future human aspirations will be centered on peace and the well-being of children.

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The gathering of the animals with all its intricacies, such as the difficulty of accommodating a giraffe in a hotel room, is told with a lot of humor. Nevertheless, no doubt is left as to the seriousness of the subject. The state of the world is portrayed as extremely worrying and people are accused of being the cause of all evil. When describing the grievances, Kästner refers - which is unusual for his children's books - to specific political issues of his time, including the Indochina War , the “prisons in Spain” - an allusion to the dictatorship of Franco - and the dangers of nuclear weapons .

The people who act so irresponsibly are faced with the animals, who, in contrast to the people, have recognized that the latter are jeopardizing the future of their children. “It's about the children” becomes the motto of the Conference of Animals. The moral superiority of animals is often emphasized, for example with the saying of the elephant Oskar: “We will put the world in order! After all, we are not human! "Even after the kidnapping of the children, the animals are still on the morally correct side, since they refer to the law according to which one can" incapacitate parents who are no good "in order to protect their children" to more suitable educators ”. Since humans as a whole are obviously not up to their responsibility to care for their children, the animals take over their care until the adults come to their senses.

In their discussion of the causes of the grievances, the animals come to the conclusion that all of this is basically due to “the files and the military”. Throughout the book there are sharp satires on the bureaucracy and the military (e.g. when, after the destruction of files by the animals, the briefcases of all participants in the people conference are each guarded by an armed soldier, or in the characterization of the incomprehensible special adviser Field Marshal Zornmüller, who tries to get the animals to give in, but is driven away by them). In addition, the animal assembly recognizes an obstacle to peace in the state borders and consequently demands in a telegram to the conference of people its lifting up to the radical demand for the "end of the state idea".

In the declaration that the heads of state sign at the end, Erich Kästner formulates the steps that are central to him towards a peaceful world politics. The demand for the abolition of the military and the disarmament of the security forces are an expression of Kästner's persistent anti-militarism , which can be traced back to his own experiences from his military service during the First World War . In addition, the bureaucracy should be reduced to a minimum (because “offices are there for the people, not the other way round”), science should be fully at the service of peace, and the best-paid civil servants should be the teachers, because “the Raising children to be real people is the highest and most difficult task. The goal of real education should be: There is no more inertia of the heart. "

Background and publication history

The basic idea for this story comes from the children's book author Jella Lepman , with whom Erich Kästner was friends. She presented him with her idea for a children's book in which, instead of humans, animals take over politics in order to ensure peace for future generations. Kästner had visited Lepman's international book exhibition for young people in 1946 and published an enthusiastic review of the exhibition in the Neue Zeitung , in which he claimed to have personally met the main characters of all the children's books on display. In The Conference of Animals , Kästner took up this idea again by allowing fictional animals from well-known books to take part in the conference.

The Conference of Animals is Erich Kästner's first post-war novel and his ninth children's book. It was first published by the Swiss Europa Verlag . Since then it has been reprinted numerous times, and since 1978 repeatedly by Cecilie Dressler Verlag . Like most of Erich Kästner's children's books, the original edition was illustrated by Walter Trier , although the latter had emigrated in 1933 and was now living in Toronto , which posed logistical difficulties for the collaboration. Of Kästner's novels, The Conference of Animals is the one with the most extensive illustrations. Although the book mainly appeals to children with its many pictures, the simple plot and the animals as protagonists, Kästner gave it the subtitle “A book for children and connoisseurs” and made it clear that it is also aimed at adults.

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Film adaptations and settings

Shortly after the book was published, Erich Kästner offered the story to Walt Disney for filming, but he refused it because it was too political for him.

literature

  • Hermann Schnorbach: Jella Lepman or: German Forgetfuls - 50 Years Conference of Animals. In: Contributions to youth literature and the media. Issue 4, Weinheim 2001, pp. 252-258.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Kordon : Time is broken. The life story of Erich Kästner . Beltz & Gelberg , Weinheim 1998, p. 55.
  2. ↑ Klaus Doderer : Erich Kästner. Phases of life - political engagement - literary work, Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim 2002, pp. 192–195.
  3. ↑ Jella Lepman : Die Kinderbuchbrücke, Fischer, Frankfurt 1964, pp. 76-77. 107-109.
  4. ↑ Klaus Doderer: Erich Kästner. Phases of life - political engagement - literary work, Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim 2002, p. 195.
  5. ↑ Klaus Kordon: Time is broken. The life story of Erich Kästner . Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim 1998, p. 265.