Darwins Jim Knopf

by Julia Voss

Unusual book

Genres: Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jan D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr gut zu lesendes Buch. „Jim Knopf und Lukas, der Lokomotivführer“ von Michael Ende wird beschrieben als eine Gegenerzählung zur Erziehung im Nationalsozialismus und rassistischen Interpretationen des Darwinismus.

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. And if the author is right, it sounds like Michael Ende criticized Darwin because he confused him with Herbert Spencer, a common mistake. So it does not surprise me that both Steiner and Ende in their criticism of Darwinism and Darwin were actually closer to what Darwin actually wrote, as social darwinism often doesn't have much in common with what Darwin wrote.
As for the Nazi era books mentioned here, Hitlerjunge Quex is the only one I even heard about and I think I only heard about the movie and not the book. All the other ones, I never heard once, so they must have been purged.
I really wonder whether the author makes any point as to why exactly Darwin allegedly inspired children so much. It is true that Ice age and dinosaurs changed children's entertainment but how exactly does that and all her talk about influential artists and Darwin's kids drawing stuff connect here? Does she mean those artists influenced the art in darwin and said art connected to kids? It was interesting to read about how Darwin liked collecting carricatures of himself and how The Water Babies contained references to evolution, but I still wonder how this is connected to having stories in prehistoric times etc. and how this exactly connects to Ende and Jim Knopf.
So according to hear Jim Knopf is based on a novel about Jemmy Button and his arrival in Lummerland is the reverse of Button's in England. Also the American reeducation is basically incarnated in Frau Mahlzahn becoming the Golden Dragon of Wisdom.
I never heard of Trotski being jewish and apparently neither parent was particularly religious. I never heard of Hilferding even though he was a Weimarian finance minister and looking up Hugo Preuß, now I recognize his face. He was the "father of the Weimar constitution", no wonder the Nazis hated it so much.
What the book did wrong was connecting the Nazis to evolution. Where did the Nazis connect their ideology with Charles Darwin and and where did Third Reich schools teach the theory of evolution? Also, I would disagree with the statement that prior to Ende no one in occidental tradition considered the idea to let a dragon live. She mentions one St. George story, but she ignores the one by e.g. female saints who tame the dragon. Granted that dragon was then killed by others, but still. Plus she seems to be unaware of house dragons. It would be more accurate to say that this is unusual, not the first. In Ende's book the mermaids are not actually mongrel beings, nor is seahorses pulling a cart somehow a centaur or so. And saying something about a chinese dragon of wisdom is rather stereotyping. In fact, in all these folk stories and legends from China that I have come across I never saw so far a wise dragon, so I doubt they are common.
So the flying Emma train in the second book is based on some atlantean air shop by some english author? It is interesting to speculate, but sadly that is what this book is all it can be, speculation. There were several points where I would disagree with the author, but it was interesting to read.