The missing miniature

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The Vanished Miniature or The Adventures of a Sensitive Butcher Master is a novel by Erich Kästner that appeared in 1935. It is one of the books that Kästner wrote during his time of internal emigration at the time of National Socialism . It became internationally successful and was made into a film twice.

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The good-natured and naive butcher master Oskar Külz from Berlin is on vacation in Copenhagen and is involved in a criminal case: A gang of German art thieves has stolen valuable art objects. Mr. Steinhövel, a Berlin art collector, bought a valuable miniature from Hans Holbein at an auction and fears that the gang will also target this miniature. His secretary Irene Trübner is supposed to bring the miniature from Copenhagen to Berlin. She asks Oskar Külz, whom she met in Copenhagen, to help her with this. On the way they meet Rudi Struve, who later turns out to be an employee of the insurance company with which the picture is insured, and several members of the criminal gang, whom they initially do not recognize as such. Since none of the people fully reveals their motives and plans to the others (except for Oskar Külz, whose honest naivety has meanwhile been misunderstood as a cover), there are always confusions and changing alliances. Over time it turns out that the picture that Oskar Külz is wearing is a forgery that is to be exchanged for the original in Berlin. In the course of the story the images are mixed up several times. Finally the mission succeeds: the band of robbers is arrested, Mr. Steinhövel receives the original miniature and Oskar Külz receives the copy as a souvenir.

The missing miniature is considered one of Kästner's apolitical books. In some details, however, a subtle criticism of the National Socialist government is recognized. For example, the fact that the heroes of the story are on a journey through Europe are fighting against a gang of criminals that have their headquarters in Berlin as an allusion to the political situation in Europe. Rudi Struve's speculation about what it would be like to live in a world in which the sun only shines on the righteous while the unrighteous are in the shade points in this direction.

Publication history

In 1935 Erich Kästner was already banned from publishing in Germany. However, the absolute writing ban imposed in 1933 had been relaxed so that he could have his books published abroad and sell in Germany. That is why the first edition was published by Atrium Verlag, Switzerland . The missing miniature has been translated into 22 languages, making it Kästner's most widely translated adult novel.

Film adaptations

As early as 1937, the US film production company MGM bought the film rights to The Disappeared Miniature , but did not implement the project because German authors lost their reputation in the USA due to the imminent beginning of the Second World War . Erich Kästner himself wrote the script for the 1954 film The Disappeared Miniature by Carl-Heinz Schroth with Paul Westermeier , Paola Loew and Ralph Lothar . In 1989 the German television radio produced a television film based rather loosely on the book, directed by Vera Loebner with a script by Friedemann Schreiter .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Fischer (Ed.): Kästner Debate. Critical positions on a controversial author (= Erich Kästner Yearbook. Volume 4). Königshausen & Neumann 2004, ISBN 3-8260-2870-8 , pp. 162-164.
  2. ↑ Klaus Kordon : Time is broken. The life story of Erich Kästner . Beltz & Gelberg , Weinheim 1998, ISBN 3-407-80729-5 , p. 160.
  3. ↑ Klaus Doderer : Erich Kästner. Phases of life - political engagement - literary work. Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim 2002, ISBN 3-7799-1088-8 , p. 206.
  4. ↑ Markus Wallenborn: Desk in the outdoor enclosure. The writer Erich Kästner in the 'Third Reich'. In: Carsten Würmann, Ansgar Warner: In the break room of the 'Third Reich'. On popular culture in National Socialist Germany. Lang, Bern 2008, ISBN 978-3-03911-443-6 , p. 219.
  5. ^ Ingo Tornow: Erich Kästner and the film . dtv, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-423-12611-6 , p. 92.
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047652/
  7. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189185/