Erhart Kästner

Kästner, Erhart (Augsburg, 1904-74, Staufen, Breisgau), a librarian in Dresden from 1927 to 1936, was secretary to G. Hauptmann 1936-8. During the 1939-45 War he was in the army, serving in Greece and Crete. Taken prisoner in the closing stages, he was held in Egypt 1945-7. From 1950 to 1968 he was director of the Herzog August Bibliothek at Wolfenbüttel (a post Lessing held nearly two centuries before). He is the author of some attractive travel books, Griechenland (1942, republished in 1953 as Ölberge, Weinberge), Kreta (1946), Die Stundentrommel vom heiligen Berg Athos (1956), and Die Lerchenschule. Geschrieben auf der Insel Delos (1964). He recorded his experience as a prisoner of war in Zeltbuch von Tumilad (1949). Posthumous publications include Über Bücher und Bibliotheken. Dresden und Wolfenbüttel (1974), ed. W. Milde and P. Raabe, Briefe (1984), ed. P. Raabe, and his correspondence with M. Heidegger, Briefwechsel 1953-1974 (1986), ed. W. Petzet.