Nesthäkchen (children's book series)

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The children's book series Nesthäkchen by Else Ury is one of the so-called Backfischromanen and conveys a predominantly traditional image of women and families based on the bourgeois values ​​of the Wilhelmine era and the Weimar Republic .

Summary and processing history

The baby Annemarie Braun is a lively child, untidy, poorly crafted and later by no means a perfect housewife. She graduated from high school and studied medicine, even if she gave up her studies for the family. Her lively temperament remains with her into old age.

Nine volumes were revised, modernized and above all shortened after the Second World War . The fourth volume, which describes the First World War from a German perspective, has been available in bookshops for English-speaking readers since 2006 in Steven Lehrer's translation Nesthäkchen and the World War . In Germany, the volume was only re-published in 2014 by Geest-Verlag (Vechta), in the Fraktur font of the original and with the original graphics, and provided with a foreword by Ury biographer Marianne Brentzel.

In January 2014, after the legal copyright period had expired, the youngest volumes (including the fourth volume) appeared in the original text at Project Gutenberg .

Baby series

Volume 1: Baby babies and their dolls (1913/1918)

The main character in the baby row is Annemarie Braun, who is six years old at the beginning of the plot. Since she was eleven years old when the First World War broke out , she must have been born in 1903; Volume 1 therefore plays during the German Empire .

The family lives in the city of Charlottenburg , which was later incorporated into Berlin , on Knesebeckstrasse, the father is the doctor Dr. Edmund Braun (the first name was changed to "Ernst" after 1945), mother Elsbeth is a housewife. Annemarie's older brothers are the good Hans (the eldest) and the cheeky Klaus, both personified external opposites to the two sides of Annemary's character, on the one hand the wild, curious and risk-taker, on the other hand the good, hardworking and ambitious. As the youngest child in the family, Annemarie is known as the “baby boy”, but she also has the nickname “Lotte”. An explanation for this nickname (middle name or similar) is not given. Other residents of the house are the cook Hanne, whom Annemarie calls "her" child, the chambermaid Frieda, the nanny, known by Annemarie as Miss, the dog Puck and Annemarie's canary antics. The family also includes Annemary's maternal grandmother, her sister Albertinchen and Aunt Kätchen, the mother's sister, who lives with Uncle Heinrich and their children Ellie, Herbert and Peter in Silesia on the Arnsdorf estate. (Arnsdorf was moved from Silesia to Lower Bavaria after 1945. )

Annemarie is a spirited and lively child. Similar to The Defiant Head by Emmy von Rhoden - Defiant Head Ilse Macket is a predecessor of Else Ury's baby boy Annemarie Braun - Annemarie is also offended with her liveliness and frequent disobedience, but is still popular everywhere, not because of the hard-earned virtues, but because of them their kindness, their honesty and naturalness. Like Ilse, Annemarie is her father's favorite.

The first volume describes the little girl's everyday adventures in the years 1909–1910. The book only takes on a continuous plot in the second half, first of all individual episodes are described: Since Annemarie, as a “ higher daughter ”, is not allowed to play with the other (socially subordinate) children in the inner courtyard, she spends most of the time with her dolls; her favorite is the doll Gerda. Often the “thoughts” of the dolls are described - here they are a moral authority and the mouthpiece of Else Urys (eg: “Annemarie knew exactly that doll Gerda did not agree” and the like). When the doll Gerda's wig comes off, Annemarie cuts off one of her braids, which is supposed to grow on her bald headed doll.

In order to be able to experience the chaos while cleaning the house, when she normally has to go for a walk with her nanny, Annemarie hopes for rain. She has heard that when it rains “the barometer falls” and decides to help out by taking her father's barometer off the wall and dropping it on the floor. An organ grinder makes Annemarie forget the ban: she dances with the other children in the inner courtyard and finally follows the organ grinder through the streets of Charlottenburg with them. Annemarie exchanges her fine shoes for wooden clogs with the skipper's girl Lenchen.

Annemarie's visit to the relatives at Gut Arnsdorf caused a change in the story. Here the overprotected city child experiences the freedom of unsupervised play outdoors for the first time. From here on, Ury also takes on a clearly chronological narrative, the events are now in a coherent sequence.

Since Annemarie is bored at home as a result, her mother sends her to a kindergarten - a surprisingly modern decision for the early 20th century. The book ends with Christmas and a preview of Annemarie's coming school days. Annemarie says goodbye to her toys with a doll wedding.

Volume 2: Baby's first year of school (1915/1918)

Volume 2 describes Annemarie's first year of school. In the first grade, which is tenth according to the old count, there are fifty students. The class teacher is the nice Miss Hering. Annemarie becomes friends with the neighboring daughter Margot Thielen and the two cousins ​​Marlene Ulrich and Ilse Hermann. Annemarie also feels drawn to the naughty Hilde Rabe.

The book describes everyday school life in the German Empire . A ranking is introduced in the class in which the best students sit in the front and the poor in the back.

Annemarie becomes a very good student, but she does not stay in first place for long, as not only performance, but also behavior and order are graded. Annemarie is soon overtaken by her friend Margot Thielen, who is less talented but a very good child. In the editions up to the 1980s, Annemary's mother explains to her daughter that order and behavior are more important to a girl than good grades. Annemarie, however, remains untidy until one day she forgets to give her canary antics fresh water. The little bird dies, and Annemarie feels for the first time the dire consequences of sloppiness. But she gets a new bird for Christmas, which she believes her old bird has risen from the dead. She becomes a decent child - at least until the end of the book - and is finally allowed to give a children's company as a reward.

Annemarie learns knitting from her grandmother, which is difficult for Annemarie. During the summer holidays she goes to the Silesian Giant Mountains with her parents (interestingly, the destination of the vacation trip was not changed after 1945).

Volume 3: Baby boy in a children's home (1915/1921)

At the beginning of Volume 3, Annemarie will be ten years old. She is still a lively child and a good student. Shortly before her birthday, she collapsed at school with a high fever: Annemarie became infected with scarlet fever through her father, who cares for Charlottenburg's scarlet fever children. After a long recovery period in her father's private clinic, she is still very weak. That is why her parents send her to the “Villa Daheim” children's home in Wittdün on the North Sea island of Amrum to relax for a year , which is run by the captain's widow Mrs. Clarsen and her sister Lenchen. (The ship docks in Norddorf , which was actually the case at the time; there was a port in Norddorf on the Kniepsand side; there was also an island railway on Amrum at that time.) Life on the island, landscape and customs, clothing and language, are described in detail, albeit often clichéd. The North Germans speak Low German (the High German translation is in brackets). Occasionally there is talk of "Frisian flat", but words in authentic Amrum Frisian cannot be found. Annemarie becomes friends with the naughty boy Peter, who repeatedly incites her to prank. The two run away together on a walk in search of wealth and swords in the mudflats . You go far out at low tide and are then surprised by the rising tide. But they find their way out of the dangerous situation (albeit with difficulty). Annemarie also befriends the good girl Gerda. Gerda has a sick leg as a result of polio. Another antithesis to Peter (who replaces the wild brother Klaus as her counterpart in this series of novels) is Kurt, whom she met in the hospital in Berlin. Kurt is in a wheelchair, but with a lot of patience and Annemary's help manages to learn to walk again.

At the end of the story, the First World War breaks out. Annemarie is now eleven years old. The spa guests leave the island headlong. On the run, Annemary's doll Gerda falls from the landing stage into the water. The scene has a symbolic meaning: Annemarie's childhood comes to an end.

This volume is the most revised of the youngest books. According to the old count, Annemarie is in the eighth grade and moves up to the seventh. In the later editions she is a third grader and is entering the fourth year of school. In the 1920 edition, Annemary's friend Gerda comes from Breslau , the capital of Lower Silesia . After 1945 it became Munich , the capital of Bavaria . In the original, “Princess Heinrich” (d. I. Irene von Hessen-Darmstadt , 1866–1953, wife of Prince Heinrich , brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II ) visits the island and the children's home, later it became the “young queen of Denmark”.

In an additional final chapter of the war period , Volume 4 Nesthäkchen, which was indexed in the original version after 1945, and the World War are summarized. The further course of the First World War is summarized with the words "However, the terrible war ended a short time later." Annemary's new friend Vera, who actually only appears in Volume 4, is introduced in a few words.

Volume 4: Baby Boy and the World War (1917/1921)

Volume 4 describes Annemarie's experiences in the First World War from 1914 to 1916.

Annemary's father, Dr. Braun, is a soldier and medical officer in France. The mother is also absent: when the war broke out, she was staying with her cousin Annchen, who is married to the Englishman John, and cannot return to Germany because she missed the last opportunity for Germans to leave due to a nervous crisis. Only a few of her letters reach her family. While the parents are away, the grandmother, the nanny and the cook Hanne look after Annemarie and her brothers.

Finally, after having carelessly expressed her enthusiasm about the success of the German submarines, the mother is arrested as an alleged spy, but is soon released again.

Annemary's brother Hans brings home a foundling one day, the baby of East Prussian refugees who probably perished. Annemarie takes the child into the house and gives him the name "Hindenburg" out of enthusiasm for Paul von Hindenburg . Finally, the child comes to the caretaker couple and is given the name Max. Annemarie's patriotism goes so far that she sets up a "foreign word box" at home - whoever uses a foreign word ("pompadour" instead of "handbag", "porter" instead of "caretaker" etc.) , has to pay five pfennigs.

In Annemarie's class there is a new girl, Vera Burkhard from Czernowitz in Bukowina , who hardly speaks any German. Incited by two older girls, Annemarie thinks Vera is a "Polish spy" and thus an "enemy" and begins to harass the girl. Her friends Margot, Ilse and Marlene feel sorry for Vera, but don't dare to object to the dominant Annemarie. Occasionally Annemarie also has doubts about the correctness of her behavior, but she does not want to admit her wrong. Finally, the class teacher announces that Vera's father fell in the Carpathian Battle on the German side and thus suffered the so-called "heroic death". Vera's reputation is restored, and the ashamed Annemarie wants to make amends for her behavior. Vera becomes her best friend.

Other important episodes:

Annemarie thinks a Siamese living in the house is a hostile Japanese and henceforth no longer greets him, but her nanny explains to her that rudeness is never something patriotic. When Annemarie fears that her mother is doing badly in England, a doctor, a colleague of her father's, explains with a laugh: “The English don't treat women that badly if they belong to a hostile nation.” One evening Annemarie prays to God, May he support Germany until it occurs to you that maybe French and English children are praying to the same God. Then she asks God to at least be neutral. When Annemarie, in her patriotism, no longer wants to learn French and English because it is the languages ​​of her enemies, the teacher teaches her a lesson in how to think further: After the war, relations between peoples must be re-established, which requires language skills, and the fatherland need an educated youth.

Volume 4 ends with the mother's surprising return from England and the hope of a victorious peace. As at the end of all volumes, Annemarie's maturation is suggested here - but this is gone every time in the respective subsequent volume and Annemarie is the spirited spoiled girl again.

The message of the book is not clear. Despite the patriotic enthusiasm for Germany and occasional chauvinism (“You got German fists to feel” and similar pithy words) no hatred is preached. War is a sad event and peace is the normal state, and there are always conciliatory tones. Annemarie's hatred of Vera is clearly criticized as unacceptable behavior (Ury calls Annemarie, among other things, a "stupid girl").

In 2014 Geest-Verlag published a new edition of the book with a foreword by Else Ury's biographer Marianne Brentzel .

Volume 5 (4): Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit (1919)

A young girl between the ages of fourteen and seventeen used to be called " Backfisch ". This volume describes Annemarie's youth, which fell into the politically and economically troubled period shortly after the First World War. Since Annemarie will be 16 years old in the course of the volume, the novel is set between 1919 and 1922, with the year 1919 being mainly depicted. The following years are skipped; the reader finds himself in the last chapter "Examination needs", in which it is about Annemarie's Abitur, in the spring of 1922 again.

Annemarie and her friends Vera, Marlene and Ilse attend high school. When Annemarie feels that her German teacher has treated her unfairly, she wants to set up a student council based on the model of the Soviet republic and clashes with the director of the school. Because of her rebellious behavior, her transfer is in danger, but in the end she makes it into the higher class. She has to let her birthday party be disrupted by a general power cut. In the summer there is a general blockade that completely shuts down electricity and water supplies. Annemarie visits her relatives at Gut Arnsdorf in Silesia (in the editions after 1945: in Lower Bavaria ), but on the hasty return trip due to the occupation of Upper Silesia by Polish troops, she remains in Sagan due to a railway strike (in the editions after 1945: Annemarie must Left Arnsdorf because of an upcoming general strike and the train stops in Nuremberg due to lack of coal ). In order to earn money, she becomes a nanny for a family of doctors. The Lange family soon noticed that she was an educated girl from a good family, because she knew Latin, didn't want to go out on the street without a hat, knew famous paintings and had a book by Selma Lagerlöf with her. When Annemary's identity is revealed, Dr. Long as her father's college friend, and the Langes treated her as a foster daughter until she returned to Berlin. In winter there is a shortage of coal and a violent flu epidemic. Nevertheless, Annemarie tries to get coal for her family, but she doesn't succeed. Eventually she gets sick too. The novel ends with Annemarie's Abitur - she and her friend Marlene have passed all written exams with an A and are exempted from the oral Abitur.

Despite the difficult times, humor has the upper hand in this volume too.

Volume 6 (5): The baby boy flies out of the nest (1921)

In this novel, which is set in 1922 and 1923, Annemarie goes to Tübingen to study with her friends Ilse and Marlene . She wants to study medicine there for a year to become her father's assistant. Her father only allowed her to study in Tübingen on the condition that she then continued her training in Berlin. Aunt Albertinchen does not agree that a young girl should leave the parental home alone.

On the way there, Annemarie missed a train in Würzburg and lost track of Ilse and Marlene. In Würzburg she meets the young doctor Rudolf Hartenstein, who she likes immediately.

Having finally arrived in Tübingen, Annemarie lives with Ilse and Marlene with the married couple Nepomuk and Veronika Kirchmäuser and their children Vronli and Kasperle. The girls become friends with the students Krabbe, Neumann and Egerling, with whom they found a "Swabian Hiking Association". Else Ury takes up the motif of the migratory bird movement popular at the beginning of the century . Annemarie meets Rudolf Hartenstein again at a party in the house of Professor Bergholz and gets to know his sister Ola.

Over time, Annemarie and Rudolf fall in love. A declaration of love comes about in a dramatic incident in the fog cave, in which Annemarie almost falls into a deep throat and Rudolf holds her at the last moment. At the Ulm Minster he proposes to her, but she refuses it because she has promised her father that she will be his assistant. Annemarie is returning to Berlin for the summer semester to do practical work in a clinic. Rudolf Hartenstein is also in Berlin and works as a doctor in the same clinic as Annemarie. He's Annemarie's boss and there is tension between the two. When they meet in the Charlottenburg Palace Park during a storm, Rudolf renews his declaration of love, and this time Annemarie gives in. The two marry, as do Annemarie's brother Hans and Rudolf's sister Ola.

In the 1920 edition there is a reference to the lost First World War - Annemarie visits the Hohenzollern Castle , which "stands there so proudly, as if she had no idea of ​​the sudden fall of her family".

Some editions contain an additional chapter: an epilogue with a view of Annemary's future, in which she has just become the mother of daughter Vronli.

Volume 7 (6): Baby nestlings and their chicks (1923)

In this novel at the latest, the plot has overtaken contemporary history; strictly speaking, the stories take place in the future of that time. Annemarie was born in 1903 and got married when she was 20, so she couldn't celebrate her seventh wedding anniversary (which appears in the book) until 1930.

In order to be able to continue the series, Else Ury extended the mid-1920s to a fictional 50 years: time stands still while the characters age. (In some trivial children's series, on the other hand, the characters do not or hardly age either.) Annemarie's life therefore no longer takes place in an actual historical period , as in the first Nesthäkchen volumes.

Baby boy and her chicks begins with Annemary's and Rudolf's seventh wedding anniversary. The two now have three children, six-year-old Vronli, three-year-old Hans and two-year-old Ursel, and live in Berlin-Lichterfelde . Annemarie's parents are popular grandparents as “Grandma” and “Grandpa”, her grandmother is the “great mother” and Aunt Albertinchen is the “great aunt” of the children. Brother Hans is a magistrate and married to Rudolf's sister Ola, they have two sons, Herbert and Waldemar. Klaus is a farmer, still a bachelor, but admires Annemary's friend Ilse. Ilse Hermann and Marlene Ulrich, the inseparable cousins, are teachers at a girls' school. Margot and Vera are also still unmarried and employed - Margot as the head of a tailoring shop and Vera as a photographer.

Annemary's daughter Vronli starts school. On this day, the children Hans and Ursel are briefly unsupervised and come across their father's matches, which Hans uses to cause a fire. The fire brigade can put out the fire, but the house is uninhabitable for the time being. The homeless family initially found shelter with their neighbor, the lonely old, but child-loving bachelor Mr. Pfefferkorn, and his grouchy housekeeper Mrs. Lübke; then Annemarie and the children move to their parents until the renovation is complete. Annemarie and Rudolf are plagued by financial worries, and Annemarie has the desire to earn money herself to help her husband. However, this plan is not implemented.

“Great mother's” seventieth birthday is celebrated (the author apparently overlooked the fact that grandmother already celebrated her seventieth in volume 3), “great aunt” dies soon afterwards. In the winter, Annemarie's children fall seriously ill with the flu, but get well again.

In the summer Annemarie travels with her children, Ilse and Marlene to her brother Klaus in Pomerania . They live on his Lüttgenheide estate on the Baltic Sea , their neighbor is their cousin Peter on Grotgenheide. The band closes with the engagement of Klaus and Ilse and Peter and Marlene.

In the first editions of the book concludes with an epilogue by Else Ury in which she explains that she had long hesitated to Nesthäkchen- continue series, and finally her young readers were moved to the many letters.

This volume has also been modernized in today's edition - in the original Annemarie occasionally beats her children, which is no longer the case in the newer editions.

Volume 8 (7): Nesthäkchens Youngest (1924)

According to the logic of time, Volume 8 is written as the year 1945, but when the survived World War is mentioned, the first is still meant - not the Second World War, which Else Ury could not foresee.

15 years have passed since the previous volume. Annemarie's husband Rudolf is now a privy councilor and professor, daughter Vronli, serious, sensible, hardworking and modest, works as an infant sister in Munich, son Hans, a poor student, is about to graduate from high school and, contrary to his father's wishes, does not want to study medicine, but become a farmer like his admired uncle Klaus. The main character is the youngest daughter Ursel, seventeen, just out of school and Annemarie very similar. She has a beautiful voice and wants to be a singer, but her father insists that she start an apprenticeship in banking. The situation between father and daughter escalated very sharply for the time, but Annemarie smoothed the waves and negotiated a compromise: Ursel started at the bank, but was allowed to take singing lessons with an aging opera diva.

Annemarie's brother Klaus is married to Ilse, they have four sons, while Marlene and Peter are the parents of three daughters. Brother Hans has been lonely since the death of his wife Ola, and both sons run wild. Annemary's girlfriend Margot becomes his housekeeper and a little later his second wife.

Annemary's mother has also become a widow and has aged a lot from the grief. Since her apartment is too big for her and old Hanne, she takes on pensioners, including two wealthy Brazilian siblings - Milton and Margarida Tavares, children of a coffee plantation owner. The two make music together with Ursel and become friends with her. Ursel and Milton fall in love, but Ursel fears separation from home.

Ursel now feels increasingly uncomfortable at the bank, and after a clash with her manager, she quits, to the horror of her parents. Everything settles in when one of his father's patients, music professor Lange, hears Ursel sing and asks Rudolf Hartenstein to let Ursel go to the conservatory . When Ursel is allowed to step in for a sick singer at a big concert, she seems to be at the beginning of a great career. Ultimately, however, she realizes that her love is stronger. She marries Milton Tavares and goes to Brazil with him - Annemarie stands up for her despite the pain of her own separation. Numerous letters home describe Ursel's new life, at the end of the volume she is the mother of the twins Anita and Marietta, who are named after grandmother Annemarie.

Nesthäkchens youngest shows similarities in content with the older Defiant Head series. As daughter Ruth is mother Ilse's likeness, Ursel is Annemarie's younger edition. Like Ruth Gontrau, Ursel Hartenstein dreams of a singing career. The emigration to America can also be found in The Defiant Head : There Ilse's daughter Marianne becomes engaged to Fritz, who has become a successful businessman in America, and goes to San Francisco with him. After many years of separation, the children from America come to Germany.

Volume 9 (8): Baby babies and their grandchildren (1924)

Sixteen years have passed since Ursel's wedding, and she hasn't seen her family for that long. She lives in São Paulo with her husband Milton Tavares, the fourteen-year-old, very different twins Anita and Marietta, and their young son Juan / Hans . The rich family lives in luxury, but Ursel is socially committed to the exploited plantation workers. Marietta wants to emulate her mother, while the spoiled Anita thinks only of herself. One day Marietta gets lost on a neighboring plantation and finds a little German girl, Lotte Müller, whose mother is dying in a mud hut. The orphaned Lotte is taken in by the Tavares and is to be taken on the long-planned trip to Germany to find her mother's relatives.

Annemarie suffers severely from the long separation from her youngest. She is now the beloved "Grandma" of Vronli's daughter Gerda and Hans' children Lilli, Eva, Edchen (probably named after Annemary's father, who is originally called Edmund and is called "Edchen" by his wife) and Heinz.

Annemarie's brother Hans has died, his second wife Margot and their two sons Herbert and Waldemar have disappeared from history without a trace.

When Anita and Marietta come to Germany, there are numerous difficulties because the two rich girls have difficulty getting used to the simple life with Rudolf and Annemarie and do not want to help with the household. However, the modest Marietta soon settles in and moves away from her dominant twin sister more and more. Little Lotte also lives in the Hartensteins' house with the servant couple Kunze, for whom she becomes a daughter substitute. The relatives - originally Silesians , but after 1945 Westphalia  - are not found.

A dramatic turn occurs when Rudolf has a heart attack and fears that he will have to die without seeing Ursel again. Marietta secretly sends a telegram to her mother and tells her about her father's illness. One day, Ursel and little Juan are at the door unannounced, and her husband will follow soon after.

In the end, fifteen-year-old Marietta decides to stay in Germany with Rudolf and Annemarie.

Volume 10 (9): Baby boy with white hair (1925)

Marietta, now twenty, still lives with Rudolf and Annemarie. As part of her studies, she works in a day care center and is a popular "aunt" there. Together with cousin Gerda, she attends the social women's school to become a child welfare worker - a profession that was popular with modern, socially committed women in the 1920s. With her twin Anita, she grew more and more apart. She falls in love with Horst, the son of Great Uncle Klaus, who adores Anita and has followed her to Brazil. The relatives expect the two to be engaged soon, but Anita surprisingly becomes engaged to Ricardo Orlando, the son of rich neighbors.

One day Marietta noticed a similarity between the kindergarten child Lenchen and Lotte, the foundling who still lives with the Kunzes in the Hartensteins' house. It turns out that Lenchen's grandmother is also Lotte's grandmother and Lenen's mother is Lotte's aunt. Lotte stays with the Kunzes, but is happy to have found the relatives and is in contact with them.

Marietta accompanies a group of children who are supposed to travel to the sea to relax and will be quartered on the estate of their great uncle Klaus. Here she receives the news that her grandfather Rudolf has gone blind. Only an operation can his eyesight be restored.

Marietta travels to Italy with her grandparents and visits relatives of her paternal grandmother in Genoa. She meets Horst, who has returned from Brazil. The two get closer. After an earthquake they shared, Horst Marietta confesses his love.

The novel ends with Horst's and Marietta's wedding and Annemary's and Rudolf's golden wedding . The whole family is gathered together, and Anita brings her little daughter Rosita with her to the party - Annemary's first great-grandchild.

According to the logic of time, this band should have played at least in the 1960s, but the development of society and especially of technology in 1925 by Else Ury could not be foreseen. In 1928 a chapter (The Radio) was revised by her and adapted to the then more modern state of the art.

Adaptations

Editing after 1945

The Nesthäkchen volumes were produced by Meidinger-Verlag until the 1930s and by Hoch-Verlag Düsseldorf from the late 1940s.

After 1945, the new publisher took the original 4th volume, Nesthäkchen und die Welt , out of line because the book was on the censorship list of the Allied control authorities. Ury's descriptions of the events in and around the First World War were too distant and were classified as glorifying the war .

The stories were edited in terms of language and content and, apart from the indexed fourth volume, republished. Adjectives, adverbial clauses and subordinate clauses have been shortened or deleted, and the dialogues have also been brought together to make the book more modern. So today's editions only contain 70 or 80% of the original text by Else Ury.

For a long time the series only comprised 9 volumes. Because of the lack of Volume 4, there was a gap in time between the baby in the children's home and the baby's backfischzeit . This break in Annemarie Braun's otherwise steady résumé was made up for by a further chapter added after 1945 at the end of Volume 3, which summarizes the events of the baby boy and the world war . In 2014 the gap was closed by a new edition of Volume 4 (Geest-Verlag, with a foreword by Marianne Brentzel).

Translations

Individual volumes in the Nesthäkchen series were translated into Dutch, French, Norwegian and English before the Second World War. In 2006 an American edition of Volume 4 was published: Nesthäkchen And The World War , translated by Steven Lehrer.

filming

In 1983 the story was shown as a Christmas series on ZDF . The television series includes the plot of the first three volumes.

Marianne Brentzel Nesthäkchen comes to the concentration camp

This title does not belong to the Nesthäkchen series. The 1992 book by Marianne Brentzel tells the biography of the youngest author Else Ury. The title refers to the fate of the young writer: As a German of Jewish origin, Else Ury was banned from writing by the National Socialist system, disenfranchised, expropriated and murdered in Auschwitz in 1943 . Nesthäkchen comes to the concentration camp is no longer relocated. In 2007 Brentzel published a revised and expanded biography of the author under the title: Nothing can happen to me - the life of the youngest author Else Ury .

Secondary literature

  • Barbara Asper, Hannelore Kempin, Bettina Münchmeyer-Schöneberg: Reunion with the baby boy: Else Ury from today's perspective . TEXTPUNKT Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938414-46-0 .
  • Marianne Brentzel: Nothing can happen to me - the life of the youngest author Else Ury . Edition Ebersbach, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938740-54-5 .
  • Dietmar Grieser : “Aunt Else” in: The Little Heroes . Insel Verlag, Frankfurt (am Main) 1991, ISBN 3-7844-2156-3 .
  • Klaus Ulrich Pech: “Ein Nesthaken als Klassiker”, in: Hurrelmann, Bettina (Ed.) Classics of children's and youth literature . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt (am Main) 1995, ISBN 3-596-12668-1 .
  • Susanne Zahn: Daughter's Life - Studies on the Social History of Girls' Literature . dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt (am Main) 1983, ISBN 3-7638-0117-0 .

swell

  1. ^ Works by Nesthäkchen (children's book series) in the Gutenberg-DE project
  2. ↑ Marianne Brentzel: Baby boy in the First World War. About the children's and youth author Else Ury. In: literaturkritik.de . July 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ Friedrich Stephan: The children's book declares war (essay), 2001, http://www.ajum.de/html/jj/pdf/0305_wk1.pdf
  4. ↑ Klaus Ulrich Pech: A nest hook as a classic. In: Hurrelmann, Bettina (ed.): Classics of children's and youth literature . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt (am Main) 1995, ISBN 3-596-12668-1 .

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