of comic, sometimes gruesomely grotesque poems, primarily those of James Krüss
(Spatzenlügen [Sparrows’ Lies] (1957) and Der wohltemperierte Leierkasten [The Well-
Tempered Hurdy-Gurdy] (1961)). Krüss also encourages nonsense poetry and lyrical
plays on words, but these only really became popular in the mid- to late 1960s (Hans A.
Halbey: Pampelmusensalat [Grapefruit Salad] (1965); Jürgen Spohn: Der Spielbaum
[The Play Tree] (1966); Michael Ende: Das Schnurpsenbuch [The Schnurps Book] (1969);
Josef Guggenmos: Gorilla, ärgere dich nicht [Sorry, Gorilla] (1971)).
On the narrative front, James Krüss stands out. His Heligoland cycles (Der Leuchtturm
auf den Hummerklippen [The Lighthouse on the Lobster Cliffs] (1956) and Mein
Urgroßvater und ich [My Great-Grandfather and Me] (1959)) bring old-fashioned story-
telling back into children’s writing. Alongside him is Otfried Preußler, whose literary
children’s fairy stories and ‘kasper’ (Punch and Judy) stories (Der kleine Wassermann
[The Little Water Man] (1956), Die kleine Hexe [The Little Witch] (1957), Der Räuber
Hotzenplotz [Robber Hotzenplotz] (1962), Das kleine Gespenst [The Little Ghost] (1966)
have become internationally successful classics, as have the Jim Knopf books (1960–
1962) of Michael Ende. The realistic children’s narratives of the period (Heinrich M.
Denneborg: Jan und das Wildpferd [Jan and the Wild Horse] (1957); Ursula Wölfel: Der
rote Rächer [The Red Avenger] (1959), Feuerschuh und Windsandale [Fireshoe and
Windsandal] (1961)), the adventure literature (Kurt Lütgen: Kein Winter für Wölfe [Not a
Winter for Wolves] (1951)), and the children’s historical novel (Hans Baumann: Der Sohn
des Kolumbus [Son of Columbus] (1951)) have all dated by comparison. In the 1960s first
attempts at critical treatment of German history, particularly that of the Third Reich,
appeared (Hans Peter Richter: Damals war es Friedrich [Then it was Friedrich] (1961);
Hans Georg Noack: Stern über der Mauer [Star over the Wall] (1962)).
A new era began at the end of the 1960s for the west German language area (including
Switzerland and Austria); one might speak of its entry into a second modern period. The
modern children’s literature of the preceding epoch aimed to autonomise childhood as
an other, an alternative world. In the free spaces or play spaces of the child the (market)
laws of the modern world were suspended. The children’s literature reform of 1970 on
the other hand transferred modern basic principles, in this case basic rights, to children
too: they are not to possess other rights, but the same rights as adults. The new trend
from 1970 is a literature of equal rights for children, claiming general human rights for
them. The concept of childhood on which it is based emphasises the similarities of
children and adults. Children are removed from their sanctuaries, their worlds of play
and adventure and exoticism, and set down in real life, where they are expected to stand
up for their human rights. They are taken seriously, they are left scope for making
decisions, their decisions are respected, they are granted the right to speak in
discussions and to vote, and they are seen not as recipients of instructions but as
negotiating partners. In the so-called anti-authoritarian children’s literature (c. 1968–
1972), the children themselves struggle for all this against the resistance—sometimes
embittered, sometimes ineffectual—of the adults, especially fathers (Christine
Nöstlinger: Wir pfeifen auf den Gurkenkönig [We Don’t Give a Toss for the Cucumber
King] (1972)). The children become inhabitants of a real world undivided between
children and adults, a reality with no idyllic features left. ‘We don’t have our children
just being happy on sunny playgrounds and in airy classrooms’, said Ursula Wölfel in
734 THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE