Catholic instruction book
Education has been an important aspect of children's and youth literature from the beginning. This is particularly evident in how-to books, in which young people are directly taught how to fit into society. The individual problems that can arise in the process are addressed as early as the 19th century and answered with different approaches to solving them - in this book by A. M. Rathgeber from a Catholic perspective.
Alfons Maria Rathgeber / Gauting b. Munich [1930] / Wehner Collection
So-called Backfischromane
A special genre of girls' literature is the so-called backfish novel, one of the earliest texts of which is Emmy von Rhoden's Der Trotzkopf. In these novels, a young girl stands out for her deviant and lively behaviour. She is sent to boarding school, becomes more conformist and finds happiness as a housewife and mother. The novels were widely read until the 1970s. Early on, Else Ury gave the genre a more modern twist with her Nesthäkchen series: The main character is loved with her 'faults'; education is given a higher status.
Emmy von Rhoden + Else Ury / Stuttgart 1888 + Berlin [ca. 1920] / Seifert Collection
Political positioning of girls' books
Girls' books have been around since the late 18th century. They are meant to prepare young women for their role in society - a role that has been interpreted differently over time. These books from 1938 are about working women. There are clear differences: in Hoerner-Heintze, care and self-sacrifice for the 'Volksgemeinschaft' are propagated in the spirit of Nazi ideology. In Michaelis, on the other hand, the protagonist develops into an ethical and hard-working woman.
Karin Michaelis + Suse Hoerner-Heintze / Zurich 1938, + Berlin [1938] / Seifert + Wehne Collections
Emancipatory girls' books of different times
The approximately 35,000 volumes in the Göttingen collection of historical children's and youth literature include more than 5,000 girls' books from the 18th-21st centuries. The historical changes in gender roles can be traced particularly well in these books. The respective book must always be seen in context: What may seem antiquated to us today may have been decidedly progressive at the time it was written. As in the case of these books, which are linked to emancipatory discourses of their time.
Laura Lee Hope + Patricia Mennen u. Birgit Rieger + Dagmar Chidolue / Stuttgart 1929, Ravensburg 2002, Weinheim 1991 / Wehner Collection + Dahrendorf Library
Collection of Historical Children‘s and Youth Literature
Books for children and young people were only collected extremely rarely by university libraries, which is why sources of literary children's culture from past centuries are not to be found everywhere. The University of Göttingen, on the other hand, can boast the collections of historical children's and youth media Vordemann, Seifert and Wehner, the Dahrendorf library as well as a constantly updated stock of current children's and youth literature.
