Author. He was one of Germany's leading creators of children's fiction during the 20th century along with being a poet, screenwriter and political satirist. Known as one of the three Erichs, he was a colleague and collaborator with artist Erich Ohser and editor Erich Knauf. Educated to be a school teacher, he turned from a career in education and went to Leipzig in 1919 to study German philology and theater, becoming a journalist and free-lance writer by 1927. He wrote for the intellectualist publications of "The World Stage" and "New Objectivity" in the 1920s. He published four volumes of poetry by 1933, which Ohser was the illustrator. Learning about Communism, Ohser and Kästner made a trip to Russia in 1930 and published articles on their finds. His sharp observations and dry humor have made his books popular with adults as well as young people. A prolific author, Kastner's best-known novels are "Emil and the Detectives" in 1929 and "Lottie and Lisa" in 1949. Both have been filmed several times, the latter by Disney as "The Parent Trap" in 1961 and 1998, which are the most recognized in the 21st century. Published in 1931, his adult book "Fabian" told of the beginning years of Nazi regime, which were later burnt. Among his other works are "Anna Louise and Anton" in 1931, "The Flying Classroom" in 1933, and "The Little Man and the Little Miss" in 1967. Born in Dresden, he served in the German Army during World War I, an experience that turned him into a lifelong pacifist. Since his books were burned publicly under the Nazi regime of World War II, he published his books in Switzerland. Eventually for political reasons, he was refused professional memberships, which impacted his work. During the late 1930s, he was twice arrested by the Gestapo, though he managed to avoid imprisonment. His colleagues Ohser and Knauf were not as fortunate. Both were arrested on charges of expressing anti-Nazi opinions by the Nazi Gestapo with Ohser committing suicide by hanging in his cell the night before his trial and after being found guilty at trial, Knauf was beheaded. In the 1940s, he wrote screenplays for films using the pseudonym Bertold Bürger. After the war, he became an editor of "The News Times" in Berlin, founded a children's publication, and from 1952 to 1962, was the president of the international writer's organization, PEN, in the German branch. In 1960 Kastner was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Lifetime Achievement in Children's Literature. In 1957 he published an autobiography, "When I Was a Little Boy." For the rest of his life, he lived with the horrors that he and his colleagues experienced under the Nazi regime. He turned to alcohol abuse, dying of esophageal cancer. His forty-year partner Luiselotte Enderle, an author, was later buried with him. He had a son, Thomas.