Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit: Nesthäckchen Band 5

Nesthäkchen #5

by Else Ury

Else Ury - Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit
In den unruhigen Nachkriegsjahren in Deutschland erlebt Nesthäckchen ihre 'Backfischzeit' - heute würde man sagen Teenagerzeit - was natürlich allerlei persönliche und schulische Probleme mit sich bringt - doch am Ende besteht Nesthäckchen Ihr Abitur hervorragend ... der fünfte Band der beliebten Nesthäckchen Reihe von Else Ury.
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Genres: Childrens, Young Adult, Classics, Fiction, German Literature, Germany

190 pages

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Else Ury (November 1, 1877 in Berlin; January 13, 1943 in the Auschwitz concentration camp) was a German writer and children's book author. Her best-known character is the blonde doctor's daughter Annemarie Braun, whose life from childhood to old age is told in the ten volumes of the highly successful Nesthäkchen series.
During Ury's lifetime Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg (Nesthäkchen and the World War), the fourth volume, was the most popular. Else Ury was a member of the German Bürgertum (middle class). She was pulled between patriotic German citizenship and Jewish cultural heritage. This situation is reflected in her writings, although the Nesthäkchen books make no references to Judaism.
As a Jew during the Holocaust, Ury was barred from publishing, stripped of her possessions, deported to Auschwitz and gassed the day after she arrived. A cenotaph in Berlin's Weissensee Jewish Cemetery (Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee) memorializes her.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes and for the most part, in her 1919 children's (girls') novel Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit (with Backfisch representing a today mostly rather obsolete German noun for teenager), Else Ury features an engaging combination of both humour and seriousness, of fun delight, but also and equally so focussing on problematic scenarios as well (showing Annemarie Braun's, showing Nesthäkchen's life as a teenager and up to the time she finishes the Gymnasium with academic distinction, with Ury's narrative taking place right after WWI but also during a time of increasing social upheaval). And while generally Nesthäkchen's Backfischzeit is of course optimistic, positive and generally also imbued with a delightful sense of wit and humour, the fun and engaging aspects of Annemarie Braun's life as a high school student in post WWI Germany (such as taking dancing lessons, having fun with her school friends, and indeed, even studying for her Abitur, for her high school matriculation) are therefore also tempered with and by the fact that social conditions in post First World War Germany are both harsh and woefully unpredictable (often not enough food and fuel products being available even if one has the necessary funds for this, unrest leading to wildcat and unpredictable strikes, and yes, the threat of an armed civil rebellion if not a revolution appearing as a constant spectre).

Now if I were just to rank Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit, with how much I have generally enjoyed Else Ury's presented narrative contents and thematics wise, my rating would likely if not even certainly be four stars (for a humorous and engagingly delightful text, by necessity of the publication year of course of its time and especially with regard to gender stratification and to what a woman's "role" in life is supposed to be, but also very much realistic and even sometimes with flashes of serious avant-guardedness). However, I do have to admit that the rather exaggerated and continuous scenario of Annemarie Braun's (of Nesthäkchen's) Polish friend Vera always always being depicted and shown by Ury as talking in a very much awkward German, this does make me feel rather uncomfortable (and indeed, enough so to now only consider three stars for Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit). Because for one, I do feel that Vera's consistent and broken German is rather condescending in and of itself (and also rather over-used by the author). And for two, and in fact much more of a potential issue in my opinion, I for one do very much find it strange and almost a trifle unacceptable that whereas in Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg (which is the previous novel to Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit even if Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg is now no longer officially published and recognised) Vera very quickly learns almost fluent German (except for some very minor pronunciation issues), in the following book, in Nesthäkchens Backfischzeit and indeed also beyond that, Vera's German language skills are usually depicted by Else Ury as being quite majorly lacking and sometimes downright incomprehensible (and that this definitely makes me annoyed and leaves me frustrated).