Manny’s review of Das fliegende Klassenzimmer > Likes and Comments

Very moving. I guess he knew the original English expression about good men and evil?

It's a very moving book! And he seems like a cultured and well-read person... I'd imagine he knew the Edmund Burke quote.

I completely forgot there is a character named Matthias in this book; my real first name, same spelling.

Kästner wrote a sequel to the Klassenzimmer. The short story "Zwei Schüler sind verschwunden" in which Matthias and Uli bolt from the school to visit the Olympic winter games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936.

Matt wrote: "I completely forgot there is a character named Matthias in this book; my real first name, same spelling.

Kästner wrote a sequel to the Klassenzimmer. The short story "Zwei Schüler sind verschwunde..."

The Matthias in this story usually shortens it to "Matz" - do you do that too?

I will look out for the short story, thank you!

notgettingenough wrote: "Very moving. I guess he knew the original English expression about good men and evil?"

I have often wondered what all the good women were doing? Trying to escape the chains holding them in the kitchen, I suspect.

"When bad things happen, it's not just the fault of the people who do them, but also the fault of the people who don't do anything to stop them."

Wow! That is a very profound statement from Uli's teacher.

Kinda reminds me of the priest from "The Boondock Saints":

" Now, we must all fear evil men. But, there is another kind of evil which we must fear most … and that is the indifference of good men!"

Pramod wrote: ""When bad things happen, it's not just the fault of the people who do them, but also the fault of the people who don't do anything to stop them."

Wow! That is a very profound statement from Uli's ..."

This makes me wonder what we should feel about evil women?

Manny wrote: "The Matthias in this story usually shortens it to "Matz" - do you do that too?"

Simple answer: No :)

Good luck in finding this story. My usual used book dealer (booklooker.de) doesn't have it; only a compact cassette / audio-book. I only know it's 70 pages (so it's a rather long short story), and it was published by Longmans in London in 1966:
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL10343...

I'm beginning to learn German, and didn't realize you knew it, until you posted this review. Do you have any tips on learning it? Thanks.

SGK wrote: "I'm beginning to learn German, and didn't realize you knew it, until you posted this review. Do you have any tips on learning it? Thanks."

My German is still very poor, but I'm improving... I'm just following my usual method of picking books up and reading them, starting with very easy stuff and moving towards harder ones. You can follow my progress if you look at my German and Dutch shelf in reading order...

Thanks. I find languages interesting, and I'll check some of the German books out.

Thanks. I find languages interesting, and I'll check some of the German books out.

Have fun!

@SGK: I recommend Duolingo, free app and online. I'm using it to learn Spanish and to keep my German from fading at the same time.

I'm glad there is a memorial to where the books were burned. Obviously, it pales into insignificance in comparison to the gas chambers, but it was driven by the same philosophy, so needs to be remembered.

I guess "When bad things happen, it's not just the fault of the people who do them, but also the fault of the people who don't do anything to stop them." is another version of Martin Niemöller famous poem, "First they came ..."

There was another plaque at the book burning memorial, with a famous quote from Heine:

Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher
Verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.

That was only a prelude, there where they burn books,
they burn in the end people.

Powerful words.

Those words by Heine surely seem prophetic. The quote comes from Heine's play Almansor: Eine Tragödie (pub. 1823). I haven't read it yet, but I have it in my "treasure chest". Here's the part to put the quote into context. As you can see it was the Quran that was burned by Ximenes, a Christian knight in 16th century Andalusia.

ALMANSOR.
    Wir hörten, daß der furchtbare Ximenes,
    Inmitten auf dem Markte, zu Granada –
    Mir starrt die Zung' im Munde – den Koran
    In eines Scheiterhaufens Flamme warf!
HASSAN.
    Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort, wo man Bücher
    Verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.

My brother and sister were born in in Austria in '46 and '47.When we emigrated in '54, they were given 8of these books by their teachers as year-end gifts. I have them still, and read them. I always loved Kaestner. We brought Struwelpeter along as well.All children are a little naughty. I liked the professor dunking the bad children mocking the African child in the ink pot.

Matt wrote: "Those words by Heine surely seem prophetic. The quote comes from Heine's play Almansor: Eine Tragödie (pub. 1823). I haven't read it yet, but I have it in my "treasure chest". Here'..."

That is quite remarkable. I wonder if there will be any productions of Almansor in the US over the coming weeks.

Schatzl wrote: "My brother and sister were burnin in Austria in '46 and '47.When we emigrated in '54, they were given 8of these books by their teachers as year-end gifts. I have them still, and read them. I always..."

Schatzl, I'm very impressed that you managed to keep the books all that time. A compliment to both you and Kästner.

I wanted to be an Archaeologist or an Dancer/Actress. But I had no counseling in the U.S. and the counselor told me I was too small and if I didn't like bugs, it was the wrong choice. Also no one told me I had enough credits to graduate in my sophomore year and had I started college at 16, my life would have radically changed. I didn't know gettting a Masters only took an additional 2 years.I thought everything was like Med school. But,ironically,I became a lifelong antique collector. We moved 9 months ago and took,much to our children's chagrin, 44,000 pounds. We had a library built in our last house and at least one book case in each room. Even the nook had a cupboard full of books. I have the clothes I wore in High School. We moved a lot. But I pack carefully.I have the towel my mother used to wrap me in for my 1st bath. I wrapped all 3 of my children in it. I'm that kind of softy. I have my husband's grandmother's wedding bangle which is the equivalent of the ring. If you have good taste and it really was a terrific item in 1919, why not keep it? Well my family had great taste and keep things carefully. When my mother-in-law died, my cousin sent me 30 or so of her saris to wear, mostly cotton and silk Dhaka handloom from her birthplace. It's not robbing the dead. This is what is expected in India. I have saris she gave me in 74 that are now. older than I am.

You have the rare gift of seeing the poetry of things! You might like Per Petterson's Ut og stjæle hester , he has it too. I hear the English translation is for once very good.

I can read German.My mother and father both spoke 6 languages each.My grandmother spoke 12 or more. I love design,texture,history, I find the ignorance in this country appalling. The only time I'm comfortable is when I'm in Europe. My parents fled the Russians but I never fit in here. Books were my only companions. I'll try to find a translation. We moved recently and only unpacked the Science Fiction books which took up half the library. But We had additional 6 ft bookcases in the family room with antique books,in the kitchen with cook books, in the kid's rooms with their books, in the hallway with books to read next, and 3 bookcase in our bedroom with travel, religion,Mogul Dynasty, French,etc. Far from poetic,my children consider me foolish and stupid. I collect Indian artifacts, Vienna Bronze, African masks and statues, Barcelona tourist dolls from the 50's, Austrian painted furniture, Hungarian painted furniture, Tulipan from Hungary, steins from the town I was born in.It has 2 breweries and a beer with its own name. I have Geisha Girl china, French dishes from Provence.Nothing I selected went down in price.Some things went up so high that I couldn't afford them now.I bought them purely out of love and the hunch that I'd never see them again. Now a $10 item might cost $150. A $150 dollar picture might be $1500. I bought in quantity. My kids were surrounded with 250 year old trunks and tables My daughter learned to walk leaving tooth marks on my first old trunk.My son sat inside it at 11 months to stay out of the way of the movers.We had no play pen or crib. The baby furniture was all wooden tables and chairs, a wooden hi-chair, rocking horse, and served all 3 kids. 1 more nick or scratch didn't matter.I oiled or tung-oiled them and they were renewed. Good design crosses the centuries.

Come and visit us if you're in Switzerland! Though we don't have so many beautiful old things in our apartment, only a lot of books.

Don't children almost always think their parents are foolish and stupid? I've done a fair amount of reading about the Flynn effect: IQs have been steadily going up now for a century. Kids notice, the older people try not to.

My mother was a concert pianist. My grandmother was the headmistress of Berlitz.She taught the Princess of Romania Russian. The Princess gave her a small oil painting of Sleeping Beauty in the attic about to prick her finger on the spinning wheel.It's one of the few things I have left of my family.They came with 2 suitcases and 1 was stolen. My mother was 1/2 Jewish.My father was Catholic and sang the mass, fooling the Nazi Col.s into giving him privileges which he sent home to his undeclared wife while serving in the Ger. Army.
He was wounded and served in the Hungarian Navy. I've almost made it to Switzerland.But I'm too old and disabled now and have been for years.When I was very young,I had no idea that my world would be closed off because I chose to marry instead of continue school. I was told when I left school early due to illness that I'd had the credits to graduate at 16.I could have earned my degree and gone on to grad school.My father died when I was 16. My siblings were gone. I could have had my own income and self-respect. Instead, my children, who have no children, and therefore don't know how hard raising a family is, think I was idle all this years.
I taught myself furniture refinishing,re-upholstery, and of course, how to tell the difference between antiques and junk as well as how to know the antiques of the future. I thought teaching my children good habits and home cooking and celebrating the holidays and traditions would keep them grounded. I hadn't counted on the computer age. I did go back to college when our son was 2 but we moved again and I became disabled in '83. But for a while,I was like a child in a candy shop. My in-laws came in June '79 for 6 months and I was taking Japanese Literature from a visiting Professor from Tokyo Japan. We were assigned 9 books by Yukio Mishima and by Yasunari Kawabata. Both very famous and both had died in 1970 and 1972. It was a very short 6 week course. and I had stacked all 18 books on my dresser. It was the smallest master bedroom we had ever had. It was 10x10. For the first and only time,I had a legitimate excuse to lock myself away. I was so happy-and guilty and thrilled. I couldn't believe this was legal. When they visited,I spent the entire day keeping them company, and the baby,and cooking,and cleaning, etc. Now I got to go upstairs after supper and read till bedtime! With the ddoor shut! The books , as I read them, went from right to left as one stack diminished and the other increased. I haven't unpacked these but I really think I must read them again. Sadly,I've only been to Japan twice but the food suits my stomach very well. The professor was very good to me He was kind enough to come to our apartment for dinner and my in-laws grilled him on my studies. He recommended me highly and at that point my husband stopped criticizing my papers. He was also invited to the sponsor's house for a dinner and he insisted we be added to the invitation. I don't think the lady was pleased but he was the star and it was his request.
I really do love books.

One more thing and then I'll leave you alone. Ever since I was 9,I have fantasized I would got to the Swiss or the Austrian Alps and find a nice sunny cave and make home there with a goat or two and a few hundred books. Every 3 months,a helicopter would take the extra books and drop off a new selection.The goats would be responsible for the cheese. And yes-I'm in a dirndl. I lost my account somewhere.I had another name and lots of books last year but they are all gone.

I like your Swiss cave fantasy! This is sort of an idealized version of how we live in Geneva, except that we have no helicopter and no goat. We will consider going all the way, you make it sound very appealing.

I'm sorry your children are so disrespectful. They should know better.

Matt wrote: "I completely forgot there is a character named Matthias in this book; my real first name, same spelling.

Kästner wrote a sequel to the Klassenzimmer. The short story "Zwei Schüler sind verschwunde..."

I did not know that.

Schatzl wrote: "My brother and sister were born in in Austria in '46 and '47.When we emigrated in '54, they were given 8of these books by their teachers as year-end gifts. I have them still, and read them. I alway..."

So do I, I love the dunking scene.

Manybooks wrote: "The short story "Zwei Schüler sind verschwunde..."

I did not know that. "

It's included in the collection Das Schwein beim Friseur und andere Geschichten.
Here's a snippet: http://members.gaponline.de/alois.sch...

A great book indeed ...... I must have read the Hindi translation over hundred times, way back in 1970s, but would love to read again. The story is so well written that I feel I know all: Martin, Uli, Matthias, Johnny, Sebastin, Rudy, Handsome Theodore, Dr. Johann Bokh, Non-smoker and others personally !! (Please excuse me, if I mis-spelt the names, as I have read a Hindi translation only).

My favourite Christmas time book!

I hadn't thought of it as a Christmas book, but I see it would work that way too!

Manny wrote: "I hadn't thought of it as a Christmas book, but I see it would work that way too!"

I read it every single year at Christmas, sometimes more than once!

What an excellent idea. Maybe I will try doing the same thing next Christmas...

Manny wrote: "What an excellent idea. Maybe I will try doing the same thing next Christmas..."

I suggest it :-)

And for New Year's Eve I suggest Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch by Michael Ende.

Matt wrote: "And for New Year's Eve I suggest Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch by Michael Ende."

Yes!!

So informative review. Tnx a lot!

I am not sure that kids today still read the book. I hope they do. It was the first book I ever read but that was a long time ago.
The book, by the way, was one of the Kästner books the Nazis did not burn.
If you have a chance try to watch the 1954 version.

I can see why you decided you wanted to become a reader!

We are trying to source the 1954 version, have already heard good things about it.