Michael Ende
Michael Ende was a prominent German author, born in 1929 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He grew up in a creatively influenced environment, as his father was a Surrealist painter and his mother ran a shop. Ende faced significant challenges during his childhood, particularly due to the rise of the Nazi Party, which impacted his family's financial stability and artistic pursuits. After World War II, he became involved in theater, founding the Attic Theatre, and later trained in acting at the Otto Falckenberg School of Performing Arts.
Ende initially struggled as a playwright but found success in children's literature, with his first novel, "Jim Button and Luke the Engine-Driver," published in 1960. He continued to gain acclaim with works such as "Momo" and "The Neverending Story," the latter becoming a cultural touchstone despite Ende's discontent with its film adaptation in 1984. Throughout his life, Ende was inspired by his travels, particularly to Japan, and his books have been translated into over forty languages, making him one of the most celebrated German writers of the twentieth century. He passed away in 1995 from stomach cancer, leaving behind a legacy of imaginative storytelling that continues to resonate with readers worldwide.
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Subject Terms
Michael Ende
Writer
- Born: November 12, 1929
- Birthplace: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany
- Died: August 29, 1995
- Place of death: Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Biography
Michael Ende was born in Germany in 1929, the son of Edgar and Luisa Ende. His father was a Surrealist painter and his mother owned a shop that sold lace and trinkets. A few years after his birth, the Ende family moved to a town near Munich. While there, Ende met a painter who first exposed him to storytelling by creating stories and fables based on the sketches he drew.
The Nazi Party’s rise to power in the 1930’s created trouble for the Ende family. Edgar Ende’s paintings were condemned by Nazi critics, and he eventually was banned from selling or showing his works, resulting in financial problems for his family. At this time, Ende began his education at Wilhelm Elementary School, where he was a poor student. A few years later, the Nazi party confiscated Edgar Ende’s paintings, and Luisa Ende had to support the family as a masseuse.
In 1945, during the height of World War II, Ende returned to his birthplace, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria. While there, he and his friends were drafted into the Nazi army. Some of his friends joined the army and were later killed, but Ende fled and went to live with his mother. He later joined an anti-Nazi organization, The Bavarian Free Front, working as a messenger.
After the war, Ende resumed his education in 1947 by attending the Steiner School in Studtgardt. It was here that he developed an interest in theater, and he founded the Attic Theatre, which produced a few plays, including one that Ende had written and dedicated to Hiroshima, Japan. He then attended the Otto Farkenberg Theatrical School in Munich, studying to be an actor and lacking the money to study playwriting. He graduated in 1950.
In the 1950’s, Ende had a number of brief acting jobs before he became a film reviewer for the Bavaria Broadcast Station, a position he obtained with the help of his friend, Ingeborg Hoffmann, whom he married in 1964. While reviewing films, Ende was exposed to a number of Japanese films which would greatly influence his life. At this time, Ende also was writing plays, but in 1957 he grew discouraged with playwriting and, at the suggestion of one of his friends, decided to write a children’s novel.
Ten months later, Ende completed his first novel Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (1960; Jim Button and Luke the Engine-Driver, 1963). Initially, publishers rejected the five-hundred-page novel, but the book was published in 1960 and went on to win the German Children’s Literature Award. Inspired by this success, Ende continued to write children’s books. His book Momo: Oder, Die seltsame Geschichte von den Zeit-Dieben und von dem Kind, das den Menschen die gestohlene Zeit zurückbrachte (1973; Momo, 1985) received numerous awards, including the German Adolescents Literature Award in 1974. Die unendliche Geschichte: Von A bis Z (1979; The Neverending Story, 1983) also was highly honored. Die unendliche Geschichte received the Janusch- Kortschack Award, and Ende donated the money from the award to the Warsaw Children’s Institute.
Ende made several trips to Japan, where he experienced Japanese culture and was escorted by a friend, Mariko Sato. In 1981, the American film The Neverending Story, an adaptation of his book, was released against his wishes. Ende maintained that the film was radically different from his book and sued to stop the film’s production. However, he lost the lawsuit and later requested that his name be removed from the motion picture’s credits.
In 1985, Ende’s wife, Ingeborg, died of cancer; in 1989, he married his friend, Sato. Ende continued to write until his death in 1995 from stomach cancer. His novels have been published in more than forty languages and have sold millions of copies. It is no wonder that Germany considers Ende to be one of the most famous and popular German writers of the twentieth century.