From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The book's title page on a German stamp (1999)

Emil and the Detectives (German: Emil und die Detektive) is a 1929 novel for children set in Germany by the German writer Erich Kästner. It was Kästner's first major success and the only one of his pre-1945 works to escape Nazi censorship. The most unusual aspect of the novel, compared to existing children's literature at the time, was that it was realistically set in a contemporary Berlin peopled with some fairly rough characters, not in a sanitized fantasy world; also that it refrained from all-too-obvious moralizing, letting the characters' deeds speak for themselves.

[edit] Plot summary

The story begins in Neustadt, a provincial German town which is the home of a grade school child named Emil Tischbein. His father is deceased and his mother raises him alone working as a hair cutter. At the beginning of the story, she sends Emil to Berlin with 120 marks to give to his grandmother and 20 marks for himself (a fairly large sum for a single-mother family). On the way he is very careful not to lose the money and uses a needle to pin it in the lining of his jacket.

But on the train to Berlin, Emil meets a mysterious man named Max Grundeis. This man gives him a mysterious candy which makes him fall asleep and dream vivid dreams. When he wakes up, the money and Herr (Mr.) Grundeis are gone. He gets off the train, and when he is able to find Herr Grundeis, he follows him. Emil dares not call the police since the local cop in Neustadt had seen him paint a moustache on a local monument, so he feels that he is "a kind of criminal" himself, not entitled to police protection. However, while he is concealing himself, he is found by a local boy named Gustav who offers to help. Gustav assembles 24 local children who call themselves "the detectives".

Emil gets his money back when Herr Grundeis goes to a bank and tries to exchange the money for smaller bills. One of the boy detectives follows him into the bank and tells the bank teller that the money is stolen. Emil comes in and tries to tell the bank teller his story. He proves that the money was his by describing the holes left by the needle he used to pin the bills in the lining of his jacket.

Herr Grundeis tries to run away, but Emil's cousin has brought a police officer to the bank. Once he is arrested, Herr Grundeis is found out to be a bank robber. Emil receives an award of 1000 marks for capturing Herr Grundeis. After everything is straightened out, Emil's grandmother says that the moral of the story is: "Never send cash — always use a money order."

[edit] The 1933 sequel

In the 1933 sequel Emil and the Three Twins, Emil and the other characters have various amusing adventures on the Baltic shore, two years after the Berlin events of the original book.

The second book did not become as well known as the first, in large measure due to its writing being shortly followed by the rise of the Nazis to power, when publication of Kästner's books in Germany was forbidden and existing books ceremoniously burned (the first Emil book was considered too popular and too harmless, thus escaping the ban).

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Main article: Emil and the Detectives (film)

Made into film in 1931, 1954, and 2001. A Hollywood version was produced in 1964 and released by Walt Disney Company.

The films made various changes to the time and/or place of the plot. In some versions Emil and the other boys are made into Americans and the theft takes place on a Greyhound bus rather than on a train. Other versions take place in contemporary Germany.

Changes in time require change of various plot elements. In 1929 Berlin, a private telephone was still a rare thing, and in the book only one boy (a doctor's son) has a phone at home — with the result that this boy is ordered to stay at home to coordinate operations, and is very frustrated at missing all the fun. In contrast, in the film version taking place in the 2000's, all the boys have mobile phones, and make much use of them in hunting the thief.

[edit] See also

• List of films made in Weimar Germany

[edit] Trivia

• In Indonesia, the novel is published as Emil dan Detektif Cilik by Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
• Emil's last name, Tischbein, translates to "table leg".
• Herr Grundeis translates literally into "Ground Ice".
• In Thailand, เอมิลยอดนักสืบ (Detective Emil) have been translated to thai version and use in junior highschool as the official classbook

[edit] External links

Emil und die Detektive project at the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (Central and State Library) (in German)

This article about a children's novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.