Shortly after the Chernobyl disaster, Gudrun Pausewang wrote Die Wolke, The Cloud. The novel appeared in 1987. It describes the consequences of a possible reactor accident in Germany, told through the fate of a 14-year-old girl. In 1988 it won the German Youth Literature Prize. It has sold more than a million copies, it is read in schools, and it was made into a film. After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Pausewang explained her purpose. Ich wollte warnen. I wanted to warn. Natürlich kann Warnung Angst wecken. Aber man sollte die Angst nicht so verteufeln. Sie wurde uns von der Natur mitgegeben als Hilfe zum Überleben. Of course a warning can awaken fear. But one should not demonize fear so much. Nature gave it to us as a help for survival.
books
Paulinchen and the Cats
Der Struwwelpeter is a German children’s book of short warning stories in rhyme. Heinrich Hoffmann, a Frankfurt doctor, wrote it as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son. It first appeared in 1845. The first printing was 1,500 copies, and the 100th edition came out in 1876. One story is Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug, the very sad story of the matches. Paulinchen is home alone and finds the matches. Her two cats, Minz and Maunz, raise their paws and warn her. Der Vater hat’s verboten! … Laß stehn! Sonst brennst Du lichterloh! Father has forbidden it! Leave it! Or you will burn up in flames! Paulinchen does not listen. The cats warn a second time. Then her dress catches fire. At the end, only a small pile of ashes and her two pretty shoes are left, and the cats sit and cry.
Hänsel’s Pebbles
The Brothers Grimm first published Hänsel und Gretel in 1812. The two children are too hungry to sleep, and they hear the woman tell their father to leave them in the forest. Hänsel tells Gretel not to worry, he will help them. When the parents are asleep, he slips outside. The white pebbles in front of the house shine in the moonlight, and he fills his pockets with them. On the way into the forest, he keeps stopping and looking back. He tells his father that he is looking at his white kitten on the roof. In fact he is dropping pebbles on the path. That night the children follow the shining pebbles home. The second time, the woman has locked the door, and Hänsel cannot get out to collect pebbles. He crumbles his bread and drops the crumbs instead. The birds eat them, and the children are lost.
The Street Sweeper in Momo
Michael Ende published Momo in 1973. In the book, the grey men, die grauen Herren, are a gang of time thieves. They pose as a Zeitsparkasse, a time savings bank, and persuade people to save time. Momo’s friend Beppo, the street sweeper, is the older, slower and calmer of her two closest friends. He explains to her how he sweeps a very long street: Man muß nur an den nächsten Schritt denken, an den nächsten Atemzug, an den nächsten Besenstrich. You only have to think of the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom. The publisher Thienemann offers teaching materials for the book and recommends it for grades 5 to 8.
The Discovery of Slowness
In 1983 Sten Nadolny published the novel Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit, the discovery of slowness. It tells the life of the polar explorer John Franklin as the story of a slow man. In the novel his slowness proves to be a strength. A slow man can afford to wait, because he must wait anyway. An excerpt had already won Nadolny the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 1980. The book drew wide interest in Germany.
Baedeker Counts the Steps
Karl Baedeker took over a publishing house in 1832 and built his series of travel guides. He traveled himself every summer and checked sights, prices and distances. The best-known story about him: while climbing Milan Cathedral, he stopped every twenty steps and moved a dried pea from his waistcoat pocket to his trouser pocket. On the way down he counted again to check.
The story has no known primary source. A 2009 article by the Protestant press service tells it as fact but gives no reference.
The Defective Copy
New books in Germany have fixed prices by law. One exception is the Mängelexemplar, the defective copy. A book with visible damage or faults may be sold below the fixed price. It must be marked, usually with a stamp reading Mängelexemplar on the bottom edge of the pages. The publishers’ and booksellers’ association adds the reverse rule. A new book stamped as defective without actually being soiled, damaged or otherwise faulty may not be sold below the fixed price.
Three Hours Every Morning
In exile, Thomas Mann kept a fixed working day. Jeden Morgen um neun zieht er sich für drei Stunden zum Schreiben zurück. Every morning at nine he withdrew for three hours to write. After dinner he read the pages of the morning aloud to his wife and family. The Thomas Mann Archive at ETH Zurich runs a long exhibition on his study, Im Schreiben eingerichtet, Set Up for Writing, from 2023 to 2029. It asks how his working day and his family life were arranged around his writing.
Late Invitations
Frida Hummel’s etiquette book Lebensart has a chapter on the midday dinner party. It says that invitations should be sent out early. The guests need time to accept or decline. The hostess needs time to prepare, and to invite a replacement if a guest cannot come. Then the chapter adds a short sentence: Späte Einladungen werden übel vermerkt. Late invitations are taken badly.
A Job Through Jachmann
In Hans Fallada’s novel Kleiner Mann – was nun?, published by Rowohlt in 1932, the clerk Johannes Pinneberg loses his job. In Berlin, Jachmann, the lover of Pinneberg’s mother, gets him a position as a men’s clothing salesman in the Mandel department store. There a consultant introduces a compulsory sales quota. Pinneberg falls behind it, and a customer’s complaint is used as the reason to dismiss him.