Waldemar Bonsels
Waldemar Bonsels was a German writer and creator of Maya the Bee.
Life and work
Waldemar Bonsels was born in Ahrensburg on 21 February 1880.Bonsels's most famous work is the children's book The Adventures of Maya the Bee from 1912. This work served the basis for a Japanese animated television series Maya the Honey Bee in the mid-1970s, as well as well as multiple other works for screen or stage. Heaven Folk from 1915 is a sequel with a more philosophical focus, describing in mystical terms the unity of all creation and its relationship to God.
Bonsels wrote a number of novels and shorter stories dealing with love as Eros and the higher level of divine love in the spirit of romanticism, and about the relationship between man and nature in a simple life unchanged by modern civilisation. Bonsels also wrote a historical novel about the time of Jesus.
He travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, which resulted in the book Indienfahrt.
Bonsels was an outspoken antisemite and expressed his approval of Nazi politics against Jews in 1933, calling the Jew "a deadly enemy" who was "poisoning the culture" in an article which was widely published. He died in Ambach, Münsing.
Books
Die Biene Maja und ihre Abenteuer Himmelsvolk. Ein Buch von Blumen, Tieren und Gott Indienfahrt Menschenwege: Aus den Notizen eines Vagabunden Das Unjekind: Eine Erzählung Eros und die Evangelien: Aus den Notizen eines Vagabunden Wartalun: eine Schlossgeschichte Weihnachtsspiel: eine Dichtung Jugendnovellen Narren und Helden: Aus den Notizen eines Vagabunden Mario und die Tiere Dositos: Ein mythischer Bericht aus der Zweitwende Der Reiter in der Wüste: Eine Amerikafahrt Mario Ein Leben im Walde Efeu: Erzählungen und Begegnungen;Translations
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Short stories
Die WindeAngelikaScholanderDie Stadt am Strom- ''Asja''
Essays
- ''NSDAP und Judentum''