Customer Reviews

Nesthäkchen and the World War: First English Translation of the German Children's Classic

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We read this novel in preparation for going to Germany (it was the only one I could find for young children in English that wasn't about WWII, which we're not ready for). But I would read this book just for it's own value, going to Germany or not. It is set in WWI and is told from the perspective of a young German girl in Germany who starts out rather spoiled.

What was especially valuable to me was the way the main character is so light and unrealistic about war to begin with, but gradually grows and changes to understand that war is not a party. The author weaves a situation into the story that gives the story great depth. While the main character is maturing in many ways, she is very cruel to another character (involving prejudice). Over and over the reader is faced with loving a main character who is doing good things on the one hand and some cruel things on the other. Resolving this in the story is part of what makes this book so worthwhile.

Add to this the poignancy given the fate of this author who, while writing about an ethnically German child, is in fact herself Jewish- and does not survive WWII. This is explained in a foreward, but is not part of the story and could be skipped if reading the book aloud to younger children.

The book deals with the homelife of a war torn family and does not delve into the details of soldier life or experiences. This would be a good introduction to the idea that war is not fun and does involve death, without going into the actual horrors of war.

I read the book to an 8 yo boy and almost 10 yo girl. They both loved it.

Growing up bilingual, my favorite books were the Anne of Green Gables series and the Nesthaekchen series. I'm so happy there's finally an English translation, even if it's only of one of the books so far. Interestingly enough, I didn't read this book until I was well in my 20's. It's no longer published in Germany, and I had to find one of the rare first editions to finally read it.
I knew the story, but still had to get the English translation. And while I appreciate all the hard work that obviously went into this book, I can't give it 5 stars because the translation is, sadly, lacking. I mean, even the translation of what a Nesthaekchen is, is wrong. I'm the Nesthaekchen of my family. That doesn't mean I'm spoiled or the family pet, it simply means I'm the youngest. Literally translated, the word means "little nest hook." The one who clings to the nest, the home, the longest. Of course being the youngest and being spoiled often go hand in hand, but it's still not the meaning.
I looked past that, but then the mistakes kept on coming, even on the first couple of pages. Filler words were translated literally - Sometimes, a word has a different meaning if it's a filler word, though. (Ruhig does not always mean quietly.) Annemarie wasn't in the Baltic for a year, Amrum is an island in the North Sea. Big difference, just ask anyone from either coast.
Of course I'm nitpicking, I know that. If you've never read the books, please read this! It's a very interesting glimpse into life of the upper class in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. If you're a native German speaker who knows the books, you'll find yourself rolling your eyes sometimes, but it's definitely still worth the read.

The ten Nesthäkchen volumes of children's books followed the life of an "ordinary" girl growing up in the first decades of twentieth-century Germany. (Her actual name is Annemarie Braun.) Daughter of a medical doctor and the popular friend of her classroom peers, the blonde "quintessential German girl" (Jewish characters are absent from the stories) continually finds herself in situations where she must learn from her mistakes about judging people, correct social behavior, and responsibility to her family and country. This volume about World War I sold three hundred thousand copies, more than any other of the very popular Nesthäkchen series. If those statistics alone do not convince the instructor and student of the book's historical value, Lehrer's statement that 55 percent of German women have read Else Ury's books, with an even larger number of women having listened to them on the radio or watched them as television episodes (p. ix), should do so. Lehrer used the original illustrations by Robert Sedlacek for the first editions of the book, allowing the reader to see the "subtle erotic quality" that accompanied the text (p. 161). Finally, Ury's biography is worthy of discussion in a classroom on German history: her family belonged to Berlin's wealthy Jewish population, rather assimilated without ignoring their Jewish background. And, like the majority of European Jews in the Second World War, Ury's family suffered exclusion from German organizations after the National Socialists came to power. Many family members immigrated; her brother committed suicide; she died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz at the age of sixty-five and as one of Germany's most successful authors.
The book's audience is young adolescents, so that undergraduates (and their professors) will enjoy the prose without feeling like they are reading a "mere" children's book. Indeed, the foregrounding of the many scenes of sibling rivalry, exasperated teachers, and misbehaving pet dogs against the omnipresent background of wartime battles, worries of the fate of conscripted military friends and family members, and consistent references to all German citizens sacrificing for the nation make this novel one that permits the reader of any age the possibility of imagining the everyday lives of families amidst the everyday realities of war. In this particular volume, for instance, Nesthäkchen suffers the temporary absence of both her parents--her mother left for England to visit relatives and cannot return or send uncensored letters, while her father treats German soldiers in France. Left in the care of a maternal grandmother overwhelmed by caring for three children, a cynical family cook who sees the war in terms of what it will cost the people, and a doting nanny, Nesthäkchen gets caught up in many discussions about national duty, understanding the objectives of the war, and what her own role should be as a young woman. In what is, according to Lehrer, a theme about evolving gender roles for boys and girls in the series, Nesthäkchen gets caught up in her brothers' zealous patriotism for the war cause, even lamenting bitterly that her feminine role of knitting socks for soldiers is not nearly as exciting as her brothers' more soldier-like duties. This sort of scene is not any sort of feminist manifesto by the author; rather, it is a reflection of how tensions surrounding male and females' places in society played out in small, rather ordinary moments that are, in fact, quite extraordinary.
Concerning the background of the war itself, Ury assumed a level of knowledge about battles in World War I that not every undergraduate today will have. For this reason, the numerous footnotes with information about particular remarks made by the characters or the author are enormously helpful. One chapter about food shortages claimed that Germany made extensive plans to husband supplies in order for the country to "hold out for years if necessary" (p. 144). Lehrer corrects this statement in a paragraph-long, well-written footnote about the fact that Germany made no such plans and the resulting numbers of deaths due to starvation and malnutrition. The footnotes provide more than additional information, however; they allow for discussions in class about why the author made certain, incorrect assumptions. Did she believe the government's information at the time, or were such statements merely useful for her storyline? Make no mistake: Ury wrote a book with a female protagonist for a female audience. Male undergraduates may not be able to relate to the very girlish feel of the story. Even so, Lehrer's many instances of inserting "history" into the story make this book accessible to all readers...
Ury's work has been long overlooked in German history, and Lehrer's annotated translation of this work has made an important contribution to students and scholars of German history who would otherwise not have access to this important genre of literature. I hope that Lehrer's publishers will decide that the other Nesthäkchen books also merit translation.
Benita Blessing. "Review of Else Ury, Nesthäkchen and the World War: A Novel," H-German, H-Net Reviews, June, 2008. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=5421219074890.

As a child, I would visit my grandmother every summer in Berlin, Germany. Back in 1983 Nestaekchen the miniseries aired on German television and lucky for me, it coincided with my visit. It was my favorite show and to this day I think about it. I especially loved it because it took place in Berlin, where I was and often showed old historic buildings that still exist today, including the Charlottenburg Palace. I have been searching for an American dvd of this series but am so excited to find that there is now an English book available to hold me over until then. I highly recommend this to any young girls looking for a great read but it would appeal to anyone of any age!

received the book in a very timely fashion and it was as described.

Germans call a spoiled child or family pet a Nesthäkchen ?
A "nesthäkchen" is always the youngest child in a family. Nothing else.