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Emil and the Detectives is a classic of children’s literature. It was written by the German writer Erich Kästner and first published in 1928 when he was 29 years old. The novel is illustrated by Walter Trier. It was first published in English in 1931, has never been out of print and has been translated into at least 59 languages. Emil and the Detectives was quite an unusual children’s book for the time, as it has a realistic setting in the Berlin of the era, rather than a idealised world, or a fantasy world with fairies, wizards, and witches. The characters are ordinary people going about their daily lives, and the central character is a young boy, “Emil�� (named after the author’s father). Emil is a typical boy, who could be found in any village or neighbourhood.

Emil and his mother live in a small town in Germany called Neustadt. His father, who had been a plumber, had died when Emil was only 5 years old. Now Emil is just over ten years old, and beginning to attend high school. Emil loves his mother, Frau Tischbein very much. He sees how hard she works to make sure they have a good life with a clean house and enough to eat. They are far from rich, but they are happy. Emil’s mother works at home as a hairdresser, and has to count the pennies. Sometimes Emil helps her with the hair washing, or with household tasks if his mother is sick. Emil is a bright boy. He works very hard at school, and always does his best to come top of the class.

Like any young child, Emil loves to play tricks. One day he and his friends jam an old hat on top of the statue of Grand Duke Charles with the Crooked Face (Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who had inherited the Habsburg jaw) - and even worse, Emil’s friends lift him up to chalk a red nose and black moustache on the statue’s face! But then constable Jeschke appears; so Emil and all of his friends run away. Emil is not sure whether the policeman had seen him or not, but he feels a little ashamed about it.

When it is the school holidays Mrs. Tischbein sends Emil to see her mother, who lives in Berlin with her other daughter, and granddaughter Pony Hütchen: Emil’s cousin who is younger than him. Emil was to give some money to his grandma, and his mother gave him a little for himself too. Emil is very excited, as he is to go by train. On the way to the train station, Emil’s mother warns him to be very careful to look after the money he is carrying. They pass constable Jeschke, and Emil is scared that the policeman will say something - but fortunately he doesn’t.

Emil boards the train, and the adventure begins. (view spoiler)[ He makes friends with a few people in his carriage, who all consider Emil to be a most polite little boy. After a few stations, Emil is left alone with a man called Herr Grundeis. Emil is a bit worried because Herr Grundeis talks without stopping, often just nonsense and jokes. Emil can’t really make him out, and doesn’t quite trust him. When Herr Grundeis falls asleep under his bowler hat, it makes Emil feel like doing so too. That would never do. So Emil goes to the bathroom and decides to secure his money safely. He pins the notes to the inside of his coat.

When he comes back, the man is still asleep. Emil tries to stay awake by pinching himself, but eventually can’t help falling asleep too. He has a dream, in which the police discover that it is Emil who has defaced the statue, but he doesn’t want to tell them the names of his accomplices. Everyone is chasing after him, and it becomes very strange with the train and the horses all following behind. Emil wakes up, to find the man has gone - and so has his money! Emil feels terrible, because his mother has worked so hard to save this money. At first he cries, and does not know what to do.

When Emil hears the train stopping at a station, he looks out of the window hoping to see Herr Grundeis. He sees him and starts chasing after him. Pony and his aunt were waiting for him, but he doesn’t see them, and doesn’t have time to explain. He has to take his suitcase and the flowers for his grandma with him too. While he is following the man, Emil meets a boy named Gustav who seems interested, so Emil tells him his story, and Gustav decides it is such an exciting episode that he will help Emil. Gustav says he has a lot of friends all over the city, and he goes off to collect them all together, to help Emil catch the thief. (hide spoiler)]



These “detectives�� are clearly a tribute to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Baker Street Irregulars��: the street urchins who were employed by his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, as intelligence agents, to help him detect crimes. In fact the story even refers to Sherlock Holmes at one point. Gustav’s friends are streetwise and bright. (view spoiler)[Together they pool their resources and make a plan to capture the thief. One of them, small Dienstag, (Tuesday) has the job of manning the phone at his parents house. He would much rather have been involved in the detective quest, racing through the city with other boys. However he is one of the few boys whose family has a phone at home that time, so he agrees, albeit unenthusiastically. At the end though, Emil’s grandma says that he deserves a special mention, because small Dienstag had stuck to his job so well, even though it was not nearly as exciting as the others�� experience. (hide spoiler)]

This adventure story is very entertaining to read. We are keen to follow Emil, to see how Emil and the Detectives achieve their end, and delight in the humorous language the story uses. This is a translation, but the idioms and witticisms feel authentic.

We follow the detectives in their exciting adventure, tailing and pursuing the thief all over Berlin until they can prove Emil’s case. It is quite a detailed plot, with little Pony Hütchen having great ideas, and playing an important part. She is able to ride her little bike, and this extra speed proves very useful to the detectives. We also see that she has an appealing nature, constantly referring to herself as if she were older, and as a sort of “housefrau��. Wherever Pony appears, everyone is in high spirits. There is a great happy ending. (view spoiler)[“Herr Grundeis�� is revealed to be a well-known robber and criminal. Emil’s mother comes to Berlin, and sees that Emil is on the front cover of the newspaper. He gets a big reward, and decides to buy his mother a coat and a hair dryer, even though she argues. She relents when his grandmother points out that giving her a present would make Emil very happy. The whole family have a big celebration, and Pony Hütchen shows Emil how to ride her bike. (hide spoiler)]

Although the author has written a novel primarily to entertain children, the story also has a strong moral code. It does not contain obvious moralising, as early children’s books often did, but lets the characters�� deeds speak for themselves. This way we see comparative values such as right and wrong, honesty as opposed to thieving and lies, and the benefits of hard work and generosity.

We are told that Emil, the main character of the novel, is a “model boy��. Because his father died when he was so young, he and his mother are very poor, and Frau Tischbein is forced to work hard. Emil helps her with everything, is attentive and sensitive, understanding and fair; an excellent student in school and best in his class. As we read further, we see that Emil is bold, capable of suppressing fear, and thinks for himself. When he first arrived in Berlin, he was fascinated by it, but couldn’t imagine living there. By the end of the novel however, he has travelled all round the city and become independent. He is more familiar with Berlin, and confident there. The family are proud of Emil. We also see that Emil’s mother is a caring, diligent woman, who will sacrifice a great deal for her son. Her caring behaviour helps Emil to become a good person.

Emil and the Detectives is in 18 chapters, and there are 16 illustrations. Each one has a few lines underneath giving more details. Quite a few of these are little character studies, and quite enchanting. They are line drawings, although in my copy from 1933, one is in colour. (I have attached this review to the later edition which I read as a child, as sadly the “cheaper�� edition I now have, which was published 2 years after the first English one, has lost its dust cover, so I cannot reliably enter it on the ŷ������ database.)

It was Erich Kästner’s first major success and remains his best known work. It is the only one of his pre-1945 works to escape Nazi censorship. The book was immediately popular and the original version sold an initial two million copies. There are several films based on this novel, including a 1980 Bangladeshi film directed by Badal Rahman. Erich Kästner went on to write more stories about Emil Tischbein.

Erich Kästner was born in 1899 in Dresden, Germany. He went to school in Berlin and Leipzig where he studied German and Roman languages, and he also gained a masters degree in philosophy. He had always wanted to write, and became an author, poet, screenwriter and journalist. He was known for his humour and satire, and this comes out in Emil and the Detectives. Other novels include “Emil and the Three Twins��, and “Lottie and Lisa��. He was a staunch pacifist and democrat, and because of this was expelled from the national writers�� guild during the Nazi era, with many of his books being burned in public.

Walter Trier was a Czech-German illustrator, with similar political beliefs. He is best known now for his work on Erich Kästner’s children’s books, and also for the covers of the long-running magazine “L����������ܳ���. In 1927, Walter Trier was introduced to Erich Kästner, and then illustrated Kästner’s Emil and the Detectives. Walter Trier was an anti-fascist, and his cartoons were bitterly opposed by the Nazis. In 1936 he emigrated to London. During the Second World War, Walter Trier helped the Ministry of Information to produce anti-Nazi leaflets and political propaganda. He and his wife became British citizens in 1947, although he later moved to Canada.

Although Emil and the Detectives is of its time, and children today do not have the freedom the children in the book do, it remains hugely entertaining and enjoyable, with enough timeless values to transfer to present day life. It would probably best suit children from the ages of about 8 to 12.

Or those quite a bit older, like me.