Nesthäkchen - Gesamtausgabe nach der deutschen Originalversion mit Vorwort des Herausgebers

Nesthäkchen #1-10

by Else Ury

Die Kinderbuchreihe „Nesthäkchen“ zählt zu den sogenannten Backfischromanen und vermittelt ein überwiegend traditionelles, an bürgerlichen Werten der wilhelminischen Zeit und der Weimarer Republik ausgerichtetes Frauen- und Familienbild.
Das Nesthäkchen Annemarie Braun ist ein lebhaftes Kind, unordentlich, schlecht in Handarbeiten und später durchaus keine perfekte Hausfrau. Sie macht Abitur und studiert Medizin, wenn sie auch ihr Studium für die Familie an den Nagel hängt. Ihr lebhaftes Temperament bleibt ihr bis ins Alter.
Neun Bände wurden nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg überarbeitet, modernisiert und vor allem gekürzt. Der vierte Band, der den Ersten Weltkrieg aus deutscher Sicht schildert, wird seit 1945 nicht mehr im deutschsprachigen Raum aufgelegt, ist aber seit 2006 für englisch-sprachige Leser in Steven Lehrers Übersetzung Nesthäkchen and the World War im Buchhandel erhältlich.
1928 wurde ein Kapitel („Das Radio“) von Else Ury überarbeitet und der moderneren Technik angepasst.
Die Nesthäkchen-Bände wurden bis in die 30er Jahre vom Meidinger-Verlag und ab Ende der 40er Jahre vom Hoch-Verlag Düsseldorf produziert.
Nach 1945 nahm der neue Herausgeber den ursprünglichen 4. Band, Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg, aus der Reihe, weil das Buch auf der Zensurliste der alliierten Kontrollbehörden stand. Urys Beschreibungen der Geschehnisse im und um den Ersten Weltkrieg waren zu wenig distanziert und wurden als kriegsverherrlichend eingestuft.
Die Geschichten wurden sprachlich und inhaltlich bearbeitet und bis auf den indizierten vierten Band neu veröffentlicht. Adjektive, adverbiale Bestimmungen und Nebensätze wurden gekürzt oder gestrichen, auch die Dialoge wurden gerafft, um das Buch moderner zu gestalten. Somit enthalten die heutigen Ausgaben nur noch 70 oder 80 % des Originaltextes von Else Ury.
Die hier vorliegende Ausgabe aller zehn Bände basiert auf der Herausgabe der Meidinger's Jugendschriften Verlag G.m.b.H. Illustriert wurde der erste Band von Franz Kuderna, alle weiteren Bände von Professor R. Sedlacek. Aus Urheberrechtsgründen wurden die Illustrationen nicht aufgenommen.

Kindle Edition

First published January 14, 2014

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 5 out of 5]

So truth be told, I am still very much in the process of reading (and of also totally and massively both appreciating and enjoying) my Kindle edition of (and very cheaply downloaded at that) Else Ury - Die Nesthäkchen Gesamtausgabe (Band 1 bis 10 in ungekürzter Fassung, and not only because it indeed is completely unabridged (for one really has to be careful, as especially post WWII, almost ALL of the newer publications of the Nesthäkchen series and yes, also the most recent ones, the Nesthäkchen books most commonly and most readily available for purchasing new, have and often massively so experienced both editorial abridgements and sometimes rather annoying instances of outright censorship) but that yes (and glory be), Else Ury - Die Nesthäkchen Gesamtausgabe (Band 1 bis 10 in ungekürzter Fassung) also includes the fourth volume of Else Ury's Nesthäkchen novels, it also includes the since WWII no longer officially published as part of the series Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg (about Nesthäkchen's experiences during WWI, but indeed and frustratingly, post WWII, it was deemed unacceptable to keep officially printing this novel, with the result that with post WWII publications, the Nesthäkchen series does no longer include Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg except of course for current Kindle editions of the entire and generally unabridged texts of the entire and original series).

And yes, my five star rating for Else Ury - Die Nesthäkchen Gesamtausgabe (Band 1 bis 10 in ungekürzter Fassung) is actually at present mostly and simply for the fact that I do very much and totally appreciate having the entire, unabridged and complete Nesthäkchen series now available for me on my iPad (and also rendered into modern German script and not Fraktur, which I for one often do find rather hard to read, especially if I am wearing glasses). For indeed, with regard to the actual Nesthäkchen novels themselves, I will of course be reviewing them singly as I read and complete them. And at present, I am in fact perusing the very first of the novels and totally enjoying if not even massively adoring not only my reading experience regarding Nesthäkchen und ihre Puppen and how Else Ury really does have this wonderful sense of time and place with regard to depicting the day to day life of an upper class bourgeois family in early 20th century Berlin but also with sweet nostalgia recalling how my maternal grandmother used to read Nesthäkchen und ihre Puppen aloud to me when I was seven years old and how she also managed to make me learn my multiplication tables by reading a chapter or two of Nesthäkchen und ihre Puppen as a treat for math assignments done with no or with not too many errors or missing parts.

Finally, if you are in fact interested in reading Else Ury's Nesthäkchen series I do indeed strongly suggest that if you actually want to read the novels as they were originally published, as Else Ury originally wrote them (with no removals, with no abridgements) and yes, if you also want to read Nesthäkchen under der Weltkrieg as an integral part of the series, I would definitely say to download Else Ury - Die Nesthäkchen Gesamtausgabe (Band 1 bis 10 in ungekürzter Fassung) or another of the all-inclusive and unabridged Kindle editions and to not really bother with the novels one by one. For unless you have the ability and also the funds to purchase the original and often highly collectible first or second edition versions of the Nesthäkchen books, the post WWII editions with their abridgements and censorship of supposedly not politically correct anymore contents really are not worth it and leave everything to be desired.

And just to point out that to-date only the first five of the Nesthäkchen books have been translated into English (not badly done at all, but still a bit of a potential problem in my opinion, as from my own quick skimming over of these books it does appear as though translator Steven Lehrer has seemingly used the more recent and thus abridged versions of the Nesthäkchen novels as the basis for his English language translations, except of course for Nesthäkchen and the World War since no recent German versions of this novel exist and Steven Lehrer obviously and of course had to use the original 1916 edition of Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg).

[Gisela Hafezparast · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this dates me terribly, but these are one of the first books I read (approved and handed-down by my mother). I have the fondest memories of these stories.

[Elsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

well... the first few parts were good, but some parts were not really to my liking.