Erich Kästner.

Erich Kästner was born on 23 February 1899 in Dresden, Germany, to Ida and Emil Kästner, a saddle maker. His childhood in Dresden and his father’s craft influenced his later writing. During World War I, he served in an artillery company, an experience that made him a pacifist. He financed his studies at Leipzig University by working as a journalist and drama critic for the Neue Leipziger Zeitung, earning a doctorate in German history and literature in 1925.

Kästner’s literary breakthrough came in 1929 with the children’s novel Emil and the Detectives, which was immediately adapted into a film. In 1949, he wrote Das doppelte Lottchen, the basis for the 1961 Disney film The Parent Trap and its 1998 remake. He also worked as a screenwriter and narrator, appearing in films like Two Times Lotte 1950, Three Men in the Snow 1955, and The Flying Classroom 1954. His satirical and children’s works earned him the Georg Büchner Prize in 1957 and the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1960.

Kästner had one son, Thomas Kästner, but little is publicly known about his romantic relationships. After World War I he was a pacifist, and his criticism of the Nazi regime led to his works being banned. He died of esophageal cancer on 29 July 1974 in Munich, West Germany.

Kästner’s children’s books have been continuously in print and adapted into films worldwide, making him a pillar of German literature. He received the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1960, the highest international recognition for children’s authors, and the Georg Büchner Prize in 1957. He is remembered for stories like Emil and the Detectives and The Parent Trap, which combine humor with moral lessons.