Lottie and Lisa

Lottie and Lisa is a novel by Erich Kästner, which appeared in 1949 in Germany, but had emerged as early as the time of National Socialism as a film treatment. In 1942, Kästner, when he was allowed to work temporarily as a screenwriter again, suggested the substance the director Josef von Baky. The draft of the script was entitled " The great secret ." As Kästner was forbidden to write again shortly afterwards, both had to drop the film project. After the war ended in 1945 Kästner worked the story then first to a novel from.

Action

Two ten- year-old girl, the naughty Luise Palfy from Vienna and the polite, modest Lotte grains from Munich take in a holiday home in the fictional town Seebühl on Bühlsee in the Alps each other. It turns out that the two are twins and were torn apart by the divorce of their parents. Louise's father is a composer in Vienna, and Lotte's mother, who has reverted to her old family name, works in Munich. At the end of the holidays, the twins swap their roles: Luise Lotte travels to Munich than to her mother and Lotte as Luise to Vienna with her father, which results because of the different skills and character to some confusion in their unsuspecting parents. When the father intends to marry again, Lotte is sick with grief; the mother learns by chance of meeting the sisters and eventually from the disease. Mother and Louise go to Vienna, where the family gets together again.

Assessment

The content of the novel was quite radical for its time: Erich Kästner was the first author of the post-war period, which ventured into the topic of divorce in a children's book. This was also the reason why the book has been hotly debated. Lottie and Lisa was a great success by the film and was the first film the German Film Award.

From the canon of children's books by Erich Kästner this work stands out due to the unusual for him figures out: It occurs not only a modern mother figure who is a single parent and working, but also the role of the child's role model is not occupied by a boy, what else common in Erich Kästner is: Lotte, one of the twins, shows the virtues which usually have Kästner "golden boys ": courage, honesty and charity. Even the father is the " dark side " of his being an interesting figure: He is the main blame for the - preliminary - failure of the marriage given.

Another difference from his other ' children 's novels ' is the idea of ​​development, pursuing the Kästner here very pronounced:

• The child had changed. And now, therefore, the young woman began to change. (after an outing together of mother and daughter in the mountains )
• He has truly become older. He almost already looks like a real man, her former husband. ( The mother worrying about her - yet - ex-husband )
• Lottchens disease can be readily understood as ' catharsis to maturity ' - and the plot is indeed the decisive turn.

Movies

The story " Lottie and Lisa " has already been filmed several times. The film adaptations relate more or less to the book by Erich Kästner.

Furthermore, there is in Japan a musical adaptation of the work.

Trivia

A Dresden tram was named after the figures.