**Lisa Tetzner with a group of children, circa 1919.** Christiane Dornheim-Tetzner

“I’ve become a wandering Scheherazade…”

Lisa Tetzner, who co-authored the famous books for young people ‘The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle’ and ‘The Black Brothers’ earned a living in her younger years as a wandering storyteller.

Peter Erismann

Peter Erismann is co-curator of the exhibition ‘Red-haired Zora and the Black Brothers’ at the National Museum Zurich in 2023.

For Lisa Tetzner, who was born in Zittau, Saxony, in 1894, the last year of the First World War – 1918 – turned out to be pivotal to her future career. Following a sheltered childhood overshadowed by illness growing up in a middle-class, conservative family, she went to Berlin to train as a social worker. However, Lisa Tetzner didn’t find the occupation as fulfilling as she had hoped. Her desire to express herself artistically and to enjoy unlimited freedom was growing ever stronger so she toyed with the idea of becoming a storyteller.

**The Tetzner family: Lisa Tetzner with her mother Pauline Frieda (1873–1955), brother Hanns-Leo (1897–1969), father Oskar Arthur (1886–1949), circa 1905.** Christiane Dornheim-Tetzner

**Lisa Tetzner as a young woman, circa 1916.** Christiane Dornheim-Tetzner

Two years earlier, Lisa Tetzner had been captivated by a Danish storyteller travelling through Germany. She attended speech training in Berlin and voice training with the acting school at Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater, and was a guest student in Emil Milan’s elocution classes at the University of Berlin. This expert would become her mentor on the path to becoming a storyteller. As early as November 1916, she had her first public stage performances, usually during charity events in Zittau. She later recalled:

The desire to write, to live, and to dream of art and perhaps to one day become an artist myself, was growing within me. I was relishing being able to do what I wanted. I felt unshackled from the confines of home.

Lisa Tetzner, in: «Doch siehe auch, ich ‹bin›», 1921

In 1918, Lisa Tetzner met the publisher and mentor from the conservative youth movement, Eugen Diederichs (1857–1930), whose publishing house was behind the Märchen der Welt fairytale series. The youth movement, which included the Wandervögel (‘Wandering Birds’) with its pioneering spirit, ideas, and utopian outlook, provided an intellectual basis for both Lisa Tetzner and for her future husband, Kurt Kläber. What appealed to them was a closeness to nature, a break with bourgeois convention and a forging of their own life paths.

**Lisa Tetzner and her future husband Kurt Kläber in Carona, 1928.** © Schweizerisches Institut für Kinder- und Jugendmedien, Zurich

Lisa Tetzner presented her idea of travelling through Germany as a storyteller to him. Despite his fear that it seemed like “a harebrained student idea typical of the Wandervögel youth movement’, she managed to convince him. “Tentatively and awkwardly, I sat opposite the patriarchal tall gentleman in a black velvet gown. I was so afraid I almost fainted. That evening he had invited along several professors and other well-known figures who just had to give my plans the OK. I regaled them half the night and not only did they express their goodwill, they also presented me with a certificate to prove that I was not just an adventurer, but a pupil of the famous voice coach Emil Milan […]. I then wrote to my father saying that I no longer needed his monthly allowance, but that I wasn’t going to be a social worker. I wanted to travel around Germany telling stories instead. I had no idea [...] that this could become my job.” (Lisa Tetzner: Das Märchen und Lisa Tetzner, 1966) She embarked on her journey in the summer of 1918 in Thuringia. The gruelling and bloody First World War was still raging, only ending that winter with Germany’s defeat. Lisa Tetzner assembled children as well as adults on village squares, in schools, churches, and literature societies and recounted fairy stories, told riddles and sang. She would use the official certificate she had received from Eugen Diederichs (a sort of licence combined with a letter of recommendation) to advertise her performances in small towns and villages.

Lisa Tetzner used these letters and posters to advertise her performances. Christiane Dornheim-Tetzner

She would regularly send reports and letters to her ‘fairytale father’ Diederichs, who compiled them into a single volume (without her knowledge) and published them in 1919. The pictures were done by painter and illustrator Maria Braun, who worked on many of Lisa Tetzner’s books. The sequel Aus Spielmannsfahrten und Wandertagen. Ein Bündel Berichte followed in 1922, and Im Land der Industrie zwischen Rhein und Ruhr. Ein buntes Buch von Zeit und Menschen in 1923.

**The 1919 volume contains a report and letters from Lisa Tetzner to her ‘fairytale father’ Eugen Diederichs. He initially published the book without her knowledge.** Eugen Diederichs publishing house

The German Ministry of Arts and Education later recognised Lisa Tetzner for her cultural contribution with a hefty cash prize and asked her to also travel to the occupied Rhine and Ruhr regions. This recognition from the government was confirmation for the young Tetzner that she was on the right track and that the future was bright. And it certainly was: in 1926 she edited Die schönsten Märchen der Welt für 365 und 1 Tag, which was published by Eugen Diederichs’ publishing house. In this impressive and comprehensive volume, she looks back at her experiences as a storyteller and incorporates some of her own research. The compilation was published for decades in numerous editions and translations, and is still available today.