"Lasst sich daraus was lernen?" Children's Literature, Education, and Ideology in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.

Without question, Erich Kastner stands as one of the most renowned author of books for children and young people in the German literary tradition. Even today, seventy years after its publication, Kastner's best-known children's story, Emil und die Detektive (1928), continues to enjoy international popularity. The book also occupies a significant position in the history of literature for children in Germany, for in it Kastner broke new ground by creating a unique type of independent, resourceful hero and by employing a realistic urban setting and contemporary language. The centrality of the city as the backdrop for the story inspired a whole new genre of children's literature, the Umweltroman, and the colloquial exchanges between Emil and the Berlin detectives (typified by such expressions as Ganz groBe Klasse and Quatsch nicht, Krause!) set a standard for children's literature which exists even to the present day (Karst 136). Yet as groundbreaking as Emil und die Detektive was, along with Kastner's other children's books such as Panktchen und Anton (1931) and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (1933), it also exemplifies the traditional, pedagogical function of children's literature, one which has defined the genre since its inception in the eighteenth century. The final chapter of Emil und die Detektive bears the title LaBt sich daraus was lernen? and every chapter of Punktchen und Anton concludes with eine kleine Nachdenkerei on topics pertinent to the proper development of a child's moral character, including Selbstbeherrschung, Familiengluck, Respekt, and Dankbarkeit. The education of young readers was also the goal of a host of children's and youth novels written and published during the Third Reich, in particular the politische Jugendschrift, a genre of youth literature aimed at inspiring identification with Nazi heroes and winning the support of German youth for the National Socialist cause. One such political youth novel, Wilfrid Bade's Trommlerbub' unterm Hakenkreuz (1934),2 reveals the influence of Kastner's Emil und die Detektive in a number of ways: both books trace their respective heroes' journey into adulthood, the heroes themselves are strikingly similar in character and bearing, and the realistic dialogue in Trommlerbub' echoes Emil's colloquial tone. Where the two books differ dramatically is, of course, in the nature of their pedagogical message. Whereas Kastner seeks to promote the values of independence, ingenuity, honesty and, above all, loyalty to family, Trommlerbub' unterm Hakenkreuz teaches that love of Germany and loyalty to the National Socialist party, even unto death, must supercede all individual and familial demands. Given the overtly propagandistic nature of books such as Trommlerbub' unterm Hakenkreuz and the most famous Nazi youth novel, Karl Aloys Schenzinger's Der Hitlerjunge Quex (1932), one might wonder whether they could have an impact on contemporary readers. Christa Kamenetsky is doubtful, asserting that it is questionable if their threadbare plots and their political ideology would still capture a young reading audience in our time. After Nazism became irrelevant, the 'message,' too,