Michael Ende
| Michael Ende | |
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Ende in 1962 (photo by Christine Meile)
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| Born |
12 November 1929 Garmisch, Bavaria, Germany |
| Died | 28 August 1995 (aged 65) Filderstadt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Occupation | Fiction writer |
| Nationality | German |
| Period | c. 1960–1995 |
| Genre | Fantasy, children's fiction |
| Notable works | The Neverending Story |
| Website | |
| michaelende |
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Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende (12 November 1929 – 28 August 1995) was a German writer of fantasy and children's fiction. He is best known for his epic fantasy The Neverending Story; other famous works include Momo and Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver). His works have been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 35 million copies, and adapted as motion pictures, stage plays, operas and audio books. Ende is one of the most popular and famous German authors of the 20th century, mostly due to the enormous success of his children's fiction. He was not strictly a children's writer, however, as he wrote books for adults too. Ende's writing could be described as a surreal mixture of reality and fantasy.
Ende was born November 12, 1929 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, the only child of the surrealist painter Edgar Ende and Luise Bartholomä Ende, a physiotherapist (Coby). In 1935, when Michael was six, the Ende family moved to the "artists' quarter of Schwabing" in Munich (Haase). Growing up in this rich artistic and literary environment influenced Ende’s later writing.
In 1936 his father's work was declared "degenerate" and banned by the Nazi party, so Edgar Ende was forced to work in secret. The horrors of World War II heavily influenced Ende’s childhood. He was twelve years old when the first air raid took place above Munich.
‘Our street was consumed by flames. The fire didn’t crackle; it roared. The flames were roaring. I remember singing and careering through the blaze like a drunkard. I was in the grip of a kind of euphoria. I still don’t truly understand it, but I was almost tempted to cast myself into the fire like a moth into the light.’
He was horrified by the 1943 Hamburg Bombing, which he experienced while visiting his paternal uncle. At the first available opportunity his uncle put him on a train back to Munich. There, Ende attended the Maximillians Gymnasium in Munich until schools were closed as the air raids intensified and pupils were evacuated. Ende returned to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where he was billeted in a boarding-house, ‘Haus Kramerhof’ and later in ‘Haus Roseneck’. It was there that his interest in poetry was awakened. As well as writing his own poetry, he began to study poetical movements and styles. A good deal of modern poetry was banned at the time, so he studied the Romantic poet Novalis, whose ‘Hymns to the Night’ left a great impression on him.
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