Famous Performers.

Editor’s spotlight — updated daily

Erich Kästner

Germany

Erich Kästner, born in Dresden in 1899, became a German author best known for children's books Emil and the Detectives 1929 and Das doppelte Lottchen, which inspired The Parent Trap films. A World War I veteran, he became a lifelong pacifist and earned a doctorate from Leipzig University. His works have been adapted into films, and he received the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Georg Büchner Prize.